The City Mortuary at Mulago National Referral hospital in Kampala has so far received 19 bodies resulting from Wednesday’s protests. The protests erupted after the National Unity Platform presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine got arrested in Luuka district in eastern Uganda.
According to Dr Moses Byaruhanga, the police chief pathologist, 15 bodies were men while one was female. Byaruhanga adds that they are expecting more bodies since many people could have been injured during the protests. Our reporter who was at the mortuary saw another three bodies being taken in.
“We received 16 bodies; 15 male one female and we have finished examining them. We started at 7 am and at 9 am we’d finished because we had 3 teams and in each team – we had 4 people in each team. Yes, we have successfully finished our work, now we’re in the process of giving the body to relatives such that they take them for decent burial,” said Byaruhanga.
According to Dr Byaruhanga, the 16 died as a result of gunshots, suffocation from tear gas while others were killed in hit and run accidents.
Maureen Nakazibwe a resident of Nansana who was at the mortuary says that her husband Peter Kintu was shot dead by Local Defense Unit (LDU) personnel. Nasser Kongora says that his 26-year-old brother was shot dead in Kisenyi while hiding in a maize store. Police has since beefed up security at the City Mortuary as the relatives collect the bodies.
A senior police officer at Kampala Central Police Station command centre identified some of the dead as Daniel Nahika who was killed on Kampala road, Mutaasa at Wandegeya, Hussein Mwebesa killed at Nasser road and another person only identified as Amate.
Three police constables were also injured in the protests. They include Ojok Boniface, Walter Okello and Nakivubo police post commander Consulate Kasule. Kasule was attacked and clobbered near Total building while she was removing tyres placed in the middle of the road.
Police vehicles UP 4833, UP 5622, UP 5564 and UP 7074 were also damaged in the scuffle. Dr Rosemary Byanyima, the deputy executive director Mulago hospital says that over 50 people have been admitted at the casualty ward nursing injuries sustained in the protests.
According to Byanyima, four people died last night as a result of injuries. She also cautioned people against taking the injured to nearby clinics.
Regime apologists have justified the killings, saying they were hooligans who were destroying people’s property and attacking security enforcement officers.
