Wife admits to hiring hitmen at Shs 2.5m

The widow of the late Masindi district health officer, Dr. Jino Abiriga, Betty Cherotic, has reportedly confessed to hiring hitmen to kill her husband. Cherotic allegedly revealed personal reasons for the crime, including jealousy and a sense of rivalry. She mentioned that one motive was the constant ridicule she faced from her husband for not being as sexually knowledgeable as other women. Initially intending to target Susan Atuhura, a woman Abiriga was reportedly dating, Cherotic claimed they failed in attempts to harm Atuhura and shifted the mission to her husband.

Cherotic is quoted by detectives as saying, “I first wanted to kill Susan Atuhura because she is the woman he was dating and compared her to me. We failed to kill the woman through arson and we also missed killing her at a place she frequented. We then turned the mission to my husband.”

The hitman, Martin Kipsang, who was contracted for Shs 2.5 million to kill Atuhura, was later tasked by Cherotic to find another person, leading to the involvement of Joshua Namureng. According to Kipsang, their first attempt to attack Abiriga failed as he woke up during the process. However, on January 6, Cherotic allegedly facilitated their entry, and they attacked Abiriga while he was asleep, using a hoe handle. Cherotic has been in police custody for a week.

The investigation into the murder of Dr. Jino Abiriga, the late Masindi district health officer, has revealed chilling details. Betty Cherotic, the widow, has reportedly confessed to hiring hitmen to kill her husband due to personal reasons, including jealousy and a sense of rivalry. She claimed that one of the motives was the constant ridicule she faced from her husband for not being as sexually knowledgeable as other women.

Cherotic initially wanted to target Susan Atuhura, a woman Abiriga was reportedly dating and comparing to her. After failing to harm Atuhura in previous attempts, Cherotic shifted the mission to her husband. Hitman Martin Kipsang, contracted for the job, and another individual, Joshua Namureng, were involved in the murder. Cherotic accused Abiriga of causing the death of their first child and blamed him for a previous miscarriage of their twins.

The investigation led to the recovery of the victim’s blood-stained clothes, which were dumped in a pit latrine at a guesthouse. Cherotic, Kipsang, and Namureng have all admitted their involvement in the murder. Cherotic claimed that the killers spent the night at a guesthouse before she allowed them into her house to carry out the murder. The couple had a nine-month-old baby at the time of the incident, having previously lost their first child and experienced a miscarriage of twins.