Minister Engola’s Murder: Are We Missing Some Imporntant Details?
The grisly murder of the junior Labour Minister Charles Engola continues to spread confusion among the public over how he was killed and the purported motive.
Engola was shot dead by his bodyguard Pte Wilson Sabiiti of Uganda’s Armed Forces. Images released in the media displayed the minister’s lifeless Frank I’m a pool of blood just in front of his house in Kyanja, a Kampala suburb.
Available revelations from eyewitnesses indicated that the trigger-happy soldier had been angered for going months without pay while pressure kept on piling on him due to his failure to fulfil patrimonially obligations at home. Ugandans, especially those with long-standing grievances against the government ran wild while celebrating the incident as they seemed to connect the fallen minister to what they believe is the country’s outstanding problem.
Whereas what happened is regrettable, there is a need to critically analyse the incident and look into the motive to assess the possibility of foul play in the murder.
The publicly available motive that the shooter was venting out his frustration at the lack of pay by the military has since been quashed by the UPDF upon the revelation by the Army Spokesperson Deo Akiiki that they have been paying their staff promptly and on time hence punching holes in that theory. The statement released by the Ministry of Labour demonstrated that the errant bodyguard had only been with the victim minister for three weeks. This further raises suspicions on how he could have amassed the anger that made him shoot at the boss he had only been deployed to guard less than a month.
Another question concerns how safely other bodyguards survived the murder yet the shooter was already on a rampage. The same applies to the driver who has already told the media he pleaded with the killer to spare him and indeed he did while tearing his boss countless times without mercy. Even if it’s been reported that other soldiers were away at the time of the shooting, someone more knowledgeable needs to address the reason why they weren’t there yet their master was getting out to go for a cabinet meeting. Besides, there are reports that the minister had already cleared the undisciplined soldier to be withdrawn from his security. How then come he was the only one close at the time he was leaving for work where they are expected to escort him?
The reports that Pte Sabiiti had severally been implicated in cases of misconduct also need to be probed. If indeed it’s true, the public should be told what prompted the bosses to deploy such a rotten-mannered officer and arm him to guard a VIP of a minister’s rank.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, in a moving tribute to the late on Wednesday, described the incident as a serious crime to patriotism and expressed regret the killer didn’t give the state the chance to conclusively pursue justice after he killed himself. He, however, noted that investigations were ongoing to get to the bottom of the matter which suggests that he too still harbours some scepticism regarding the murder.
Unless those charged with the investigations will openly come out to clear the air on the above missing gaps, questions on whether Engola’s murder was not a strategic conspiracy knitted for a long time over something other than the eventual killer’s personal grievances will forever linger on the minds of critical observers.
