The police in Bunamwaya, Makindye-Ssabagabo, have arrested a man suspected of killing Joy Namata, a senior three student at Kitebi secondary school, whose body was found dumped by the roadside three days after she went missing.
Namata had been reported missing by both the school administration and her mother, Joy Nabawanuka. Her body was later discovered by residents, who alerted police before it was taken to the City Mortuary in Mulago for a postmortem examination.
Preliminary findings suggest that Namata may have been killed by her boyfriend, identified only as Kakande, for reasons yet to be established. According to police, at least three residents of Bunamwaya saw the two walking together between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the evening she disappeared.
“She was living with her grandmother, and I thought she was at school. When the grandmother called to say she hadn’t returned home, I was shocked. We were still hopeful she would return alive,” said Nabawanuka.
Police and residents later searched Kakande’s rented room in Bunamwaya town but found he had vacated. Acting on a tip from one of his friends, officers tracked him to a new hideout and arrested him.
Detectives have since begun interrogating Kakande to establish the motive behind the killing. At the time of filing this story, Namata’s body had been returned to her grandmother’s home in Bunamwaya as arrangements were underway to transport it to Mityana district for burial.
Her grieving mother, Nabawanuka, was rushed to a nearby health facility after collapsing several times upon seeing her daughter’s body.
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