John Mubatizi, a security guard at St. Mary Magdalene Church of Uganda Namavundu in Gayaza in Wakiso district is in trouble in connection with the kidnap and murder of a minor and injuring her teenage sister.
Mubatizi allegedly kidnapped Annet Nantongo,8, a former pupil at Senses Kindergarten school Namavundu, and Sumaiya Nakiboneka,13, a senior 1 student of New Bulamu secondary school on Sunday evening.
Their grandmother, Mary Kiryowa, a resident of Gayaza Namavundu Village in Kasangati town council explains that the minors left home to buy a book in Gayaza and didn’t return as expected.
She says that she immediately alerted other residents and they started hunting for the missing girls.
The minor’s father, Lazarus Kibaya, says that he recieved a call from the minor’s mother that they were missing and placed announcements on community megaphones at night in different villages to try and find them in vain.
According to Kibaya, after long hours of searching, they managed to locate where Nakiboneka was dumped on Monday afternoon.
She had several cuts on her hand and head. They rushed her to Mulago National Referral Hospital as they continued searching for Nantongo.
Robert Akol, one of the residents, says that Nakiboneka regained consciousness and revealed how Mubatizi had kidnapped and locked them inside his house at St. Mary Magdalene Church of Uganda Namavundu.
He said that the child informed that the guard decided to kill her sibling after realizing that they knew him.
They later managed to find Nantongo’s lifeless body with stab wounds on the neck. Charles Ssegawa, another resident, says that using the information obtained from the teenager, police introduced a sniffer dog to the scene that led them to the Mary Magdalene Church where the security guard was residing.
Louise Akabwayi, the LC I Chairperson of Namavundu Village, says that suspect was unknown to the local authorities. He urged residents to introduce all visitors to the local authorities.
Police retrieved Nantogo’s body and took it to Mulago National Refferal Hospital for postmortem. Mubatizi is locked up at Kasangati Police Station as investigations are ongoing.
