Police in Busoga East are hunting for a 68-year-old man who allegedly beat his 78-year-old brother to death in Mawundo Village, Namutumba Sub-county, after a long-standing land dispute erupted into violence over police summons.
The suspect, identified as George Nalugoda, reportedly launched a fatal attack on his elder brother, Patrick Kakaire, shortly after being handed an official notice to appear before law enforcement.
According to the Busoga East Police Spokesperson, Mr Michael Kasadha, Kakaire had lodged a formal complaint accusing Nalugoda of trespassing on his land and damaging his property. Police subsequently issued summons and routed it through the vice chairperson of Mawundo Village Local Council for delivery to the suspect.
However, the intervention intended to resolve the conflict peacefully triggered a tragic turn of events. Upon receiving the document, Nalugoda allegedly stormed his brother’s residence in anger.
“It is alleged that the suspect we are hunting was served with police summons on August 1 after the deceased reported him for trespassing on his land. However, upon receiving the summons, he went to the complainant’s home and allegedly assaulted him, resulting in his death,” Mr Kasadha said.
Mr Kasadha added that Nalugoda punched Kakaire, causing the elderly man to fall heavily to the ground. Distraught relatives rushed Kakaire into his house, where he succumbed to his injuries moments later as the suspect fled the scene. Nalugoda had been scheduled to report to Namutumba Police Station for questioning on August 3, but is now on the run.
This tragic fratricide underscores the growing crisis of deadly land conflicts across the Busoga sub-region. High population density, severe land fragmentation, and ambiguous customary inheritance practices have increasingly driven family members into hostile confrontations.
Local leaders in Busoga have repeatedly warned that boundary wrangles among relatives are shifting from civil disagreements into fatal assaults, often exacerbated when legal notices or local council mediations are served without security precautions.