New details emerge in slain minister Engola case

Investigations indicate that Police foiled a murder attempt last year on the life of a former prime minister whose name has been withheld.

Details this reporter has managed to get hold of indicate that Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) last year seized a hotel in western Uganda where the former prime minister was residing.

Detectives who are studying circumstances that could have led to Pte Wilson Sabiiti murder of Engola revealed that the guards expressed their frustrations of poor and delayed pay.

“While at the hotel, the guards protested and even cocked guns demanding pay,” one the detectives told New Vision, a Ugandan newspaper, adding that the situation was saved by a counter terrorism officer from Police’s Very Important Persons Protection Unit (VIPPU), attached to the former prime minister’s security detail.  

“Cunningly but brave, the officer first sympathised with the guards and assured them he was walking to their boss to raise the matter,” he further told the newspaper.

He added that to calm them down, he gave the guards some money and told them he had telephoned the former prime minister and that more money was being brought.

The counter terrorism officer, according to the source, later drew his weapon (pistol) onto the guards together with another colleague he had asked for back up.

The guards were thereafter disarmed and arrested.

The above scenario, among others, are among the clues detectives are investigating to better understand what could have prompted Pte. Sabiiti to murder his boss, the now deceased Charles Engola.

Engola’s case has also prompted Government to review how bodyguards are deployed.

Engola was gunned down two weeks ago (Tuesday, May 2 2023) at his home in Kyanja by his bodyguard as he prepared to go for Cabinet meeting.

Sabiiti was allegedly frustrated over poor and delayed pay by the Government, according to reports from residents who saw him fire shots in the air as he shouted his frustrations. This was after murdering Engola.

Residents said he later entered a nearby salon and took his own life.