Killings in Fort Portal rise to three within week, police accused of abandoning duties

The rising number of murder cases in the area, starting on Monday with the death of 23-year-old Sarah Ahaisibwe and the latest two, one of an unknown man and the third, later identified as 50-year-old Paul Bahizi Rutabagisha, have thrown residents and authorities into an insecurity panic.

Thomas Kakuru, one of the residents, accused police of leaving them with promises and no real defence, in the poorly lit area at that.

He said most of the spots in the city where bodies are recovered don’t have security lights.

"They always tell us they have enough security but we don’t see it on ground. Instead we have insecurity. It's like the police abandoned its work and joined politics instead," he said.

The Fort Portal City Central Division mayor, Richard Muhumuza, blamed the insecurity in the area on lenient punishment handed out by courts of law to thugs.

“The challenge we have now is that some thieves after being sentenced by court spend their few months in prison and come back to the community to start from where they had stopped after their arrest. What we need now is that the court should help us give such people harsher punishments,” he said.

The latest victim, Rutabagisha is suspected to be working with Kagadi District Health Office going by the documents recovered on his person.

According to Rwenzori West Region Police spokesperson, Vincent Twesige, Rutabagisha was attacked by thugs who must have seen him withdraw cash at a petro station.

“It's alleged that today (November 26, 2022) at about 0700hrs while Sheikh Tibenda Swaibu was at his home, he received a call from their security guard that there's a dead body of a man dumped in the premises of the mosque. After confirming the information, he informed police which came and visited the scene. It was found out, after recovering a Fuel receipt at the scene, that at 0021hrs, the deceased used a Total fuel card to withdraw fuel cash worth Shs 750,000 and thugs could have followed him to rob the cash,” he said.

Hours before Rutabagisha's body was found, a yet to be identified man believed to be in his early 20s, was found dead a stone's throw from the mosque at the junction leading to St.Charles Lwanga town church.

The two deaths followed death of Mountains of the Moon University student, Ahaisibwe, who was found dead in her bedroom on Monday. The deceased was working as an agent banker at her aunt's (Kellen Kajubi) shop.

It is believed that thugs followed her thinking she had money. After numerous unanswered phone calls to Ahaisibwe, she was found by her work mate Phionah Nyamata, who had to climb over a fence with a boda boda rider, with scratch marks around her neck.

All bodies were taken to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital mortuary for autopsy.

However, no suspect has been arrested in connection with all three cases.