On April 27, 2018, Gideon Kaaya and Lillian Najuma went to visit their father Abel Katende at his home in Masulita, escorted by their mother Janet Namugenyi. Little known to Katende, was that a phone call he had received from his children asking to see him was all part of a grand plan to kill him, purportedly over property.
Two years back, Katende had left his home in Rutete Village, Kasangati in Wakiso, near Kampala following a misunderstanding with his family who forced him out. He resorted to settle at his ancestral home in Masulita.
The wife and children to the former Monitor Publications Senior accountant confessed to police on Sunday that sending him away was not enough for them.
They planned to own all his properties and thus hacked the plan.
They called him, saying they needed to bond with him since they had not seen him for a long time. He agreed to meet them.
- The latrine from where Katende’s body was exhumed by police on Sunday.
In Masulita, the children and mother confessed that they clobbered Katende using a welding stick till he died. They then carried his body in a car boot back to Kasangati, where they buried him in a pit latrine.
A joint effort by the Flying squad, Crime Investigation Department, Fire Brigade and rescue services, together with area police managed to exhume the body of the deceased from the pit latrine where he had been for a week.
Neighbors who claimed to have suspected some foul play and to have heard him screaming for help and crying as they beat him to death, told Police that his children had a hand in his murder, prompting officers to arrest the children along with their mother.
Also read: Former Monitor sales executive murdered by wife, buried in pit latrine
In a statement issued by police, The Flying Squad Commander ACP. Herbert Muhangi on Sunday warned the residents who intended to storm and demolish the houses of the suspects that they would also be charged with malicious damage.
ACP. Muhangi called upon the residents to stay calm and maintain neighborhood watch during this sad period as investigations are finalized.
