More questions than answers in pastor Bugingo’s shooting

Pastor Aloysius Bugingo in hospital

Pastor Aloysius Bugingo survived Tuesday night’s assassination attempt because he was driving himself yet the assailants targeted the co-driver’s seat where his bodyguard, Muhumuza Richard was seated according to eyewitnesses. 

It is still unclear whether the assailant(s) targeted Muhumuza in particular, or it was just a case of misjudgement and mistaken identity. Meanwhile, several Ugandans on social media have questioned how the pastor managed to survive the 9 pm attack – let alone manage to drive himself to Mulago hospital from Bawalakata junction where the incident occurred – some 6km away. 

Eyewitnesses narrated what transpired since many of them were within the vicinity of the scene of the attack. Joseph Sseku, one of the residents in the area revealed that as Bugingo was coming from his Salt TV station approaching Justine Ssendikadiwa road to join Namugoona main road, the assailant(s) who were on a motorcycle, fired more than 10 bullets at Bugingo’s car targeting the co-driver.

However, only four bullet shells were reportedly recovered by the scene of crime officers. Important to note is that police said the scene of crime had been tampered with. 

Sseku claims after the incident, the assailant fled towards the Bawalakata road, shooting in the air to scare away onlookers. Police statement said the gunmen swiftly fled the scene on a motorcycle. Initial reports by Rubaga deputy resident city commissioner (RCC), Anderson Burora who broke the news first at around 11 pm indicated that Bugingo had been rushed to Mulago hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) but it was later established that the pastor drove himself to the hospital and even reportedly tried to knock down the assailants soon after the shooting according to a report by Bugingo’s own Salt TV and the area defence officer Wilson Kato. 

There are also several conflicting reports about where exactly Bugingo got injured. First son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba who is close friends with Bugingo said he’d spoken to Bugingo on Wednesday morning and he told him that he was slightly wounded in the left shoulder. 

“Once again, we urge the law enforcement agencies to quickly investigate and bring these criminals to justice. Who are these criminals? Is it ADF or some other shadowy group? We need answers to these questions. This is the second attack on our supporters in the last 8 months and no offender has been brought to book yet. The case of the cold blooded murder of Isma Olaxess is still unresolved. Once again we thank God that Pastor Bugingo survived this heinous attack,” Muhoozi wrote on Twitter.

In a short brief to the media, Charles James Ssenkubuge, the director general manager of Salt Media contradicted Muhoozi when he said Bugingo was shot in the back.

“He got an open wound at the back. The bullet opened his back, and he was advised by the doctors that they can’t operate on that wound, they have to treat it as an open wound,” said Ssenkubuge. 

A seemingly older video has been circulating online in which Bugingo claimed that certain individuals are after his life and want him dead but in a short media briefing today, Bugingo said he cannot point a finger at anyone over yesterday’s attack and only thanked God for giving him a second chance just like he gave to Transport Minister and former army commander, Gen Katumba Wamala miraculously survived a June 1, 2021, similar attack that claimed the life of his daughter Brenda Nantongo Wamala, and his driver Haruna Kayondo.

The assailants showered Katumba’s vehicle with bullets at around 9 am along Kisota road in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb. An executive committee member of Namungoona-Kasubi LC I, Wilson Kato said that they heard sounds similar to gunshots, but they thought that they were sounds from the exhaust pipes of a Subaru car.

The attempted assassination of the controversial Bugingo has once again raised questions about growing gun violence in the country. President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) government has always been riding under the arch of guaranteed peace and security but that too seems to be eroding just like the futile war on corruption.

PATTERN

The decade-long motives of the assailant are yet to be established since no conclusive reports have ever been made available to the public at least ever since the murder of high-profile figures started around 2012 targeting Muslim sheikhs across the country. Of the 19 deaths by shooting between 2012 and 2018, former police boss Kale Kayihura linked 10 cases to the ADF rebel group known to have bases in the DR Congo. The motive may not yet be known to the public but the shootings have the same pattern.

The shooting dates and months may appear random but the shooting times all seem to fall within a certain range. Despite the usual police rhetoric, the investigations always almost lead to nowhere. President Museveni’s much fancied CCTV cameras also never seem to come in handy to help apprehend the suspects. Security sources have previously intimated to The Observer that the assailants seem to be connected within the state because in most cases, CCTV footage from the vicinity on the days of the shootings usually goes missing. 

The shootings are usually carried out in the early morning between 8 am and 9 am or in the evening between 6 pm and 9 pm. Guards or no guards, the assailants always attack their targets whenever almost at will. 

Former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi was assassinated on March 17, 2017, in Kulambiro also in Kisasi at about 8 am as he returned home after dropping off his children at school.

‘Yellow boy’ and former Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga was shot dead at 6.30 pm near his home in Matugga on June 8, 2018. On September 8, 2018, in Bulenga, a sudden hail of bullets tore into Assistant Superintendent of Police Muhammad Kirumira, killing him almost instantly together with his friend Resty Mbabazi Nnalinya at about 9 pm. The couple was gunned down with Nnalinya, near Musoke road boda boda stage, just opposite a murram road leading to his home in Bulenga. Nnalinya was a mobile money attendant in the area.

She had just joined Kirumira in his parked car Toyota Corona Reg N0. UAJ 228V moments before bullets rained down. Last year vlogger Isma Olaxxes was also gunned down similarly at around 8 pm.