A teacher has been arrested on allegations of beating to death the school cook. Umar Kabogo, a teacher at Ibun Masood Nursery and Primary School, is accused of killing Moses Mugisha for the alleged theft of Shillings 50,000 from him.
The incident took place at the school premises in Bunamwaya, Makindye Ssabagabo Municipality, in Wakiso district on Monday evening. Hamis Kyabakonzo, who reported the incident at the Bunamwaya police station, said that Kabogo locked Mugisha inside the boys’ dormitory and repeatedly punched him, demanding the return of the stolen money.
Kyabakonzo said that the fight between the two men started at around 7:30 pm, and by the time they were separated, Kabogo had given Mugisha more than enough punches.
“We decided to take him to Lubaga Hospital at around 8 pm. However, he spent a few minutes and he was pronounced dead. Kabogo decided to follow us to the hospital amidst fears about his actions. I told the doctors and nurses what had happened. They told me to convince him to come to the hospital. We alerted the hospital police, which arrested him,” Kyabakonzo said.
The suspect was charged with assault causing death, and the police have opened an investigation into the incident. The police have collected exhibits from the scene of the incident, and Kabogo’s file is expected to be sent to the Makindye resident state attorney for prosecution.
The police intend to take Kabogo back to the scene to reconstruct the incident and collect evidential material that will be used for his trial. The investigations are being led by ASP Rashida Naluzze, the Officer In charge of criminal investigations at Katwe divisional police headquarters.
Patrick Onyango, the Kampala metropolitan police spokesperson, urged people not to take the law into their own hands and to report incidents to the police. Onyango said that if Kabogo had reported the theft to the police, he would not be in custody for killing someone.
This is not the first time people have been killed for small amounts of money in the country. The police have previously recorded cases of people killed over amounts as small as 200 Shillings, 500 Shillings, 1,000 Shillings, and 10,000 Shillings. Jane Biira and Daniel Magara were killed in 2020 and 2016, respectively, for as little as 200 Shillings.
