KAMPALA – Musician Michael Kalinda, also known as Ziggy Wine, died as a result of a hard object that hit his head, crushing his skull, a post-mortem report has revealed.
The artist died on Sunday evening, days after he was allegedly dumped at Mulago Hospital by unknown people after maiming him. At the time of his admission, he had reportedly been tortured, his fingers chopped, his left eye plucked out and had visible burns all over his body.
And now results of a postmortem carried on the deceased indicates that after a hard object hit the dead, it broke the skull bone and allowed blood to flow into his brain, which caused a slow death.
The postmortem was conducted at Mulago Hospital and the doctors are conducting further tests to establish whether the artiste could have been poisoned. The doctors, who refused to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said urine samples and those of the deceased’s internal organs are being subjected to further tests to establish whether there was any poison. However, the report shows that the artiste’s eye was not plucked out as earlier reported.
The artiste’s torture death has currently remained a puzzle, with police denying knowledge about it. On Monday, Police spokesman Fred Enanga said they will investigate the matter.
“The detectives from Kawempe Police Division will work along CID homicide officers to establish circumstances under which Ziggy Wine was kidnapped and maimed leading to his death,” he said.
Mr Enanga said the detectives will assess footage from the CCTV cameras at Mulago hospital for clues on who could have dropped the deceased at Mulago hospital. The deceased’s family has since notified police that they have been getting death threats from anonymous people warning them not to speak about his kidnap.
Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, has accused the government of trying to intimidate him to back off from his presidency bid by arresting and torturing supporters of his People Power movement.
Bobi Wine said with the recent atrocities committed against his supporters, the regime wants him to drop his presidential ambitions.
“As we draw towards the 2021 elections, it is apparent that President Museveni is determined to silence any form of dissent using extreme violence,” the legislator-cum musician said.
“Although he came to power castigating former presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin of torture and extra-judicial killings of their opponents, he seems determined to out-do their record in terms of committing unspeakable atrocities against the wanainchi,” he added.
Bobi Wine also expressed dismay at the manner in which Ziggy Wine was tortured.
“His left eye was plucked out, two of his fingers cut off and parts of his body were burnt with a flat iron. He was beaten to near death and dumped at Mulago hospital by unknown people where he spent a week before being identified by his family and friends. Last night, he was declared dead,” he said.
