Grief and fear have engulfed Kitwe Cell in Rwentuuha Town Council, Bushenyi District, after a 34-year-old woman was found dead in a banana plantation on Thursday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Justina Sandres, born in Nyakishana sub-county, Buhweju District. She was operating a bar and waragi depot in Kitwe Cell where she was commonly known as Nakate.
According to residents who discovered the body, Nakate is suspected to have been sexually assaulted and strangled. Police are yet to confirm cause of death, pending postmortem.
A resident who was first at the scene described the harrowing moment.
“Am the one who covered her body after people had discovered she was dead. I found her when she was naked and as if she was gang raped and strangled to death. Blood was coming from the mouth and the eyes and she was dusty. I had to cover her after police told me to do so,” said Hawa Owoyesigiire, who operates a restaurant in the area.
“She was my neighbour. When I saw her, I remembered how we had a jolly life with her all the time and I couldn’t believe she was the one,” she added.
The LC1 Chairman of Kitwe Cell, Naboth Kasingye, said he was alerted by the owner of the banana plantation.
“I was shocked in the morning after the owner of this banana plantation called me notifying me that they found someone who appeared to be dead. I came and saw the body but couldn’t reach near it as a way of following police guidelines. So I went and reported to Rwentuuha Police Station and I came back with the OC together with the CID. What we saw, it’s as if the lady was raped,” Kasingye said.
He noted this was the fourth such incident in the area this year, linking many cases to excessive alcohol consumption and bars operating past authorized hours.
“In this area we have been putting measures like doing patrols and making sure people sleep early, but because the top leadership has allowed people to drink alcohol past time, we have lack of control,” he added.
LC5 Councillor for Rwentuuha Town Council, Frank Muhumuza, echoed the concern.
“We found a dead body in this banana plantation and this person is well known in Kitwe trading centre where she was operating a bar. Security is everyone’s responsibility. There are many bars around but they don’t always want to close early. People drink from morning till morning, automatically such murders are expected because when people are drunk they fight each other,” Muhumuza said.
Police from Bushenyi, with help of a K9 sniffer dog, combed the scene and arrested eight suspects to help with investigations.
The body has been taken to Kitagata Hospital for postmortem examination.
By press time, police had not yet issued an official statement, but investigations are ongoing.