Mr Tonny Lukyamuzi who was hacked by the assailants and left for dead. PHOTO/ GERTRUDE MUTYABA
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Masaka killings: Lukyamuzi lost his memory after attack
What you need to know:
- We bring you accounts of survivors of machete attacks in the Greater Masaka area in 2021. The attacks, which occurred between July and September, claimed 28 lives and left several others with injuries. The attacks brought back ugly memories of similar attacks between 2017 and 2018, which left scores dead. In this fourth installment, we bring you the story of an 80-year-old who narrowly survived the attack.
Mzee Tonny Lukyamuzi, 80, is lying on rags that double as his bed.
He is unable to walk and spends most of the time lying on the bed due to immense pain.
Lukyamuzi says he doesn’t know whether he will live to see the next day.
The resident of Kikaalala Village, Kyamuyimbwa Parish, in Kimaanya-Kabonera Municipality, Masaka City, is among the people who suffered the wrath of the assailants that terrorised the Greater Masaka area between July and September in 2021.
On the night of August 29, 2021, the assailants descended on Lukyamuzi’s home and hacked him using a machete, leaving him with a huge cut on the head. He has since failed to gain full health despite receiving medication from different health facilities.
Lukyamuzi, who currently resides at his sister, Rose Nakyanzi’s home, says he usually feels dizzy as a result of the wounds he sustained.
“Recently, I got very dizzy and fell into fire, which inflicted many more wounds on my body, including the hand and the legs,” he recounts in a low-pitched voice.
Lukyamuzi says before the attack, he used to dig in people’s gardens and get paid but can no longer do so due to poor health.
“We ask the government to consider us the survivors the same way it did with families that lost their loved ones. We suffered irreparable damage and some of us may not do serious work again,” he says.
Lukyamuzi also says he needs specialist treatment. “For my case, I need money so that I can have a thorough medical checkup, especially on the head, which I think has a serious problem,” he says.
“Sometimes, I remember everything and there is a time when I forget everything and this came as a result of the attack,” he adds.
Ms Nakyanzi says she spent more than Shs3 million to treat her brother and part of the money was borrowed from her friends.
“Up to now, I still owe people Shs700,000 and I do not know where I will get it from because all that I had saved was used to treat my brother. I do not run any busianess and Lukyamuzi, who used to dig and earn some money, is no longer able to do so,” she explains.
She says the only financial assistance Lukyamuzi received came from the Kimaanya-Kabonera Municipality legislator, Dr Abed Bwanika, who contributed Shs300,000 and all this was spent on Lukyamuzi’s medical treatment.
