Anthony Kushaba, a communications officer with the Ntungamo District Local Government and a former Uganda Radio Network (URN) journalist, was found dead in his rented room in Ntungamo town on Friday, hours after spending the evening with friends.
Kushaba, 36, had served in the district for about eight years.
His colleagues became concerned after he failed to report to work on Friday and could not be reached by phone.
‘We were together at his aunt’s burial in Nyabihoko on Thursday. We left together, had dinner, and he drove home at around 10:00 p.m.,’ said Eng. Prosper Butubuura, a close workmate.
‘He was always among the first to report to the office, but at times he would travel to his home in Kabale without telling anyone. When we realised he was not in the office and had not come in by midday, and calls to his phone were not going through, we decided to look for him physically,’ Butubuura said.
Kushaba, the younger brother of lawyer Eron Kiiza, rented a room a few meters from the district headquarters where he worked. When Butubuura and his colleagues went to check on him, they found the door locked and received no response when they knocked.
‘I called the landlady, and we decided to call the police. But before the police arrived, I looked through the rear window and saw the shoes he was wearing the previous evening. The door was locked from the inside, and there were all the signs that he was in there,’ Butubuura said.
The door was later forced open, and Kushaba was found dead on his bed.
His landlady, Juliet Kwata, said Kushaba normally woke up in the morning, greeted people, and went to work, although his routine sometimes made it difficult for neighbors to know whether he was inside his room. She noted that he would occasionally sleep for several extra hours or leave his car parked outside while walking to the office, meaning his absence from the compound did not immediately raise suspicion.
The night before his death, Kushaba had been with friends at a pork joint in the Buhumuriro suburb, where they spent the evening together.
‘He told us many stories, mimicked a wedding for one of us, and assigned each of us roles to play at that wedding. He was a very happy man,’ said a friend who asked not to be named.
A postmortem conducted at Itojo Hospital reportedly revealed ruptured blood vessels, according to Butubuura, who said doctors linked the condition to Kushaba’s death.
‘Doctors told us that the vessels carrying blood to the heart had ruptured in the upper part of the body, preventing blood from reaching the brain, which caused his death,’ Butubuura told Monitor.
There was no immediate indication that Kushaba’s death was connected to his brother’s exile or his brother’s work as a lawyer. Butubuura said Kushaba had not reported receiving threats to his life, although he had previously raised concerns over workplace-related issues.
Kushaba began his journalism career in 2009 before moving into radio presentation at BFM in Bushenyi and later Voice of Kigezi in Kabale. He subsequently joined URN, where he served as the agency’s Mbarara bureau chief for about three years before joining the Ntungamo District Local Government.
Colleagues remembered him as outspoken and willing to voice workplace grievances.
‘If we had grievances and failed to air them, we would tell Anthony, and he would either raise them during meetings or speak to the concerned parties directly,’ said Florence Kisembo, an inventory officer. ‘He fought for our rights and was straightforward and direct-an open man,’ she added.
Kushaba is survived by his wife and three children.