By Joseph Kato
“Mum, I will return with money and demolish this shack of a house. I will make sure you and my sisters are happy. People will stop laughing at us,” those were the words Robert Ssenyonga, 17, reportedly told his mother Margret Nakyanzi, in December 2019 as he embarked on the more than 180km journey from Gomba district to Buikwe district in search for a job.
Unfortunately, Ssenyonga returned to his mother’s house in a coffin during the pandemic after he was beaten to death by security agencies enforcing curfew hours imposed by the government meant to control the spread of Covid19. Ssenyonga’s crime was riding a motorcycle in curfew hours which started at 6pm.
Nakyanzi recalls that it was a brighter morning when her son Ssenyonga hugged her and promised to turn around the miserable life they were living in. Before making a decision to search for employment, Ssenyonga who was a few shy to 18th birthday had spent close to a year stuck at home due to lack of school fees.
At the time, Ssenyonga was living with his mother, Margret Nakyanzi, in Kanoni town council, Gomba district. Being the third last born, Ssenyonga was tired of seeing his mother and two sisters struggling to lead a decent life.
He began by making a phone to his elder sister married in Entebbe inquiring on whether she was in position to find employment for him. Nakyanzi recalls that her son was extremely excited when he received a phone call from the sister that she had got him a job.
“His sister told him that he was going to work in a farm in Buikwe district. His employer was identified as Edwin Ariho. I prayed for my son and put him God’s hands. What I didn’t realize then was that it was a forever send off,” a teary Nakyanzi narrates the last moments with her son.
From December 2019 to July 2020 when Ssenyonga met his death, he communicated to his mother almost every evening. In addition, he often sent his earnings home to cater for his mother and siblings’ needs.
Nakyanzi who was found in a dilapidated house built with trees, wattles and mud, said she was hopeful that her son would build her a good house. Ssenyonga would tell the mother to spend part of the money and save another portion.
Even though Nakyanzi had never met his son’s employer, Edwin Ariho, she was sure her son was living a good life. This was because that her son would speak to her every evening in a jolly mood. She was never worried about his working environment.
But one evening he received a terrifying call from Ariho who informed her that Ssenyonga had been involved in an accident. “I had never talked to my son’s employer. I only knew his name as Edwin Ariho. But when I saw a call almost at the time my son often called me, I got scared. The voice was of a male person. He asked me whether I was Ssenyonga’s mother and I answered in affirmative. He then told me that my son had been involved in an accident,” Nakyanzi narrates.
Ariho further explained to Nakyanzi that Ssenyonga was returning from a trading centre on a motorcycle when he was hit by security men and he fell down. Quoting witnesses accounts, Ariho told Ssenyonga’s mother that he was hit with a gun butt on the head which probably made him very unconscious and heavily landed on the tarmac.
A one George who claimed to have witnessed the incident told journalists and Ariho that the group that beat Ssenyonga was comprised of policemen and Local Defence Units – LDUs attached to the First Division of Uganda’s Army.
Despite the promise by then LDU Spokesperson Maj Bilal Katamba and Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, that an investigation was being conducted to establish the truth behind Ssenyonga’s death, no report has been made public neither any security person has been arrested in regard to Ssenyonga’s brutal murder a year later.
But Ssenyonga’s family says a postmortem indicated that he was hit with a hard object on the head that shuttered his skull. The damage was worsened by the heavy fall on the tarmac.
The x-ray and scans conducted at Jinja and Mulago hospitals all indicated that his skull had been crashed.
“I went to the hospital but Ssenyonga could not recognize any of us. I tried to call him as his sister but he never responded. Even my mother did not hear his voice. His head had been wrapped with a white bandage. I saw him and I knew he was going to die. He indeed passed on three days later,” Farida explains.
Ariho told this reporter that he dragged the security personnel to Uganda Human Rights Commission –UHRC with hope that Ssenyonga’s case would be expeditiously heard so that the mother is compensated.
Juliet Logose, the head of UHRC’s head for central regional office that covers Kampala City, Wakiso, Mukono, Buikwe, Kayunga and Mityana districts acknowledges that Ssenyonga’s murder is one of the dozens of human rights violation they have recorded in regard to implementation of Covid19 orders.
But UHRC’s duties had been hampered by lack of the chairperson after the demise of overall head Med Kaggwa in October 2019. But Logose is hopeful that such cases will be resolved since a new UHRC Chairman Mariam Wangadya has been appointed.
Article 22 of Uganda’s Constitution as amended in 2005 states that “No person shall be deprived of life intentionally except in execution of a sentence passed in a fair trial by a court of competent jurisdiction in respect of a criminal offence under the laws of Uganda and the conviction and sentence have been confirmed by the highest appellate court. No person has the right to terminate the life of an unborn child except as may be authorized by law.”
Based on the above article, Nakyanzi demands the state to apprehend its security personnel because they convicted her son to death without according him chance defend himself before courts of law.
Human rights and media have reported over 20 people who have been shot or beaten to death by Army, LDUs and police in the guise of implementing directives intended to control the spread of Covid19.