Another woman was found dead in the Entebbe area. Her name is Susan. After three weeks of missing, her cold body was found dumped close to the main road.
Speaking Lunyoro via phone, her kidnappers asked for One Million United States Dollars. After failing to protect Susan’s life, the police is now offering One Hundred Million Shillings for anyone who can help identify the voice in the recording. Susan is a highly valued Ugandan.
Twenty-eight other women were found dead in the same area over the last few months.
Their cold bodies often had sticks or metals shoved up their birth canals. Some were strangled or disfigured.
The police not only failed to protect their lives, but also profiled them as prostitutes, mentally ill, high on drugs, Illuminati, or loose women without men.
This profiling was aimed at reducing these dead women to the margins of society where they were not only being blamed for their deaths, but also being characterised as undeserving of police protection and security.
The murderer(s) of these twenty-eight women are still unknown and unpunished.
Susan is middle class. Susan looks lovely. Susan’s make-up was perfect. Susan spoke English.
The Late Susan Magara
Susan had a job. Susan had a car. Susan had friends with Facebook and Twitter. Susan has a family. Susan lies dead; murdered. Susan could be me. Susan could be you.
Criminals are no longer targeting only low-life working class women. Criminals are now hitting women like you and your sisters or your daughters.
The negligence and ineptitude of the police in Uganda is no longer affecting only opposition members or the poor.
Unmitigated crime is now in your very own backyards, affecting your daughters, families and friends.
If the police could not solve a single murder out of the last twenty-eight cases of dead women, shall we ever know Susan’s murderer(s)?
Apart from arresting government critics, parading innocent suspects before the public media, escorting big men in patrol cars causing traffic jams, saluting, and pouring tear gas on civilians, what is Kale Kayihura’s police good for?
The failures of the police are now up close and personal. Crime is in our faces!
Adapted from Stella Nyanzi’s Facebook Page