WHY DID SOLDIERS HAVE TO SHOOT PEOPLE IN THEIR HOMES?

NEW VISION
KAMPALA, UGANDA
By Mary Karugaba & Francis Kagolo

"21 bodies dead, 96 people injured in hospitals"

Six patients died at Mulago Hospital and another person passed away at Mengo Hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the riots that erupted on Thursday, The New Vision has established.

This brings the death toll to 21 since 14 bodies were taken by the Police straight to the Kampala City Council mortuary.

A total of 91 patients were by last night still admitted at Mulago, Nsambya, Rubaga and Mengo hospitals.

Although the acting director of Mulago Hospital, Dr. Yiga Matovu, put the number of the dead at two, records showed that six patients had died of gunshot wounds in his hospital.

One of them was a two-year-old boy, Benjamin Atere, who was hit in the head on Friday while playing in the living room of their house on Mawanda Road near Mulago.

According to his father, Patrick Atere, the boy was hit by a stray bullet through the roof.

“The pain I have is unexplainable. I had two children, a girl and a boy. Now I am remaining with one, who is in nursery,” a teary Atere said.

Those who died at Mulago include 23-year-old Hakim Muganga, who got shot at Natete on Friday. Others were Abdullah Batibwe, 25, a resident of Kibuye, and Frank Kafuma who sustained gunshot wounds at Nabweru in Kawempe division.

At Mengo Hospital, officials reported one death, of a boda-boda rider, which occurred on Thursday night. There was still one patient admitted at Mengo, six were at Nsambya and four at Rubaga Hospital.

Maureen Kisakye, 30, a mother of four, admitted at Nsambya Hospital, said she was shot through the chest in Seeta, on the Kampala-Jinja road.

“I attended prayers at St. Augustine Church on Friday evening. While at church, we heard gunshots.

“At first we hid. But when we thought the situation had calmed down, we decided to use an alternative route off the main road. As I walked with my friend, one of the soldiers who had taken cover shot me,” Kisakye narrated.

Lying in severe agony in Rubaga Hospital, Yozefu Kasozi, 62, a cook working for a Catholic charity, got a bullet in the abdomen.

A Catholic nun who is taking care of him said he was hit when he moved from the kitchen to the main house at the Good Samaritan Bakateyamba home in the Nalukolongo suburb on Masaka road.

“The bullet hit him through the stomach and got stuck in the liver. He does not eat yet he keeps on vomiting,” said the nun.

Esther Ssanyu, 20, also admitted at Rubaga Hospital, said she was hit by a bullet while mopping her house in Busega on Friday morning.

“We heard gunshots but I continued doing my housework. Later, some people started shaking our gate. The bullet passed through the gate, hit two doors, then a jerrycan before it went through my thigh,” she recounted.