The bodyguard of the former Works and Transport minister, General Edward Katumba Wamala engaged in a gunfight with the assailants who killed his daughter and driver on Tuesday morning, forcing them to flee.
The speaker of parliament, Jacob Oulanyah disclosed this after visiting Katumba at Medipal International hospital along Acacia avenue where he is being treated for gunshot wounds.
Four masked gunmen riding on motorcycles intercepted Katumba's vehicle, registration number H4DF 2138 along Kisota road in Kisaasi, and sprayed it with bullets killing his daughter, Brenda Wamala Nantongo, 27, and driver, Haruna Kayondo on the spot. The vehicle bears over 20 bullet holes.
Katumba sustained two gunshot wounds in his shoulders and was rushed to Malcolm clinic in Kisaasi for first aid treatment before being transferred to Medipal hospital. Oulanyah, who visited Katumba together with his deputy Anita Among, says that the attackers approached the former chief of defense forces' vehicle from the back and front and were determined to eliminate him.
Although in subsequent social media videos captured, Katumba's bodyguard appears slightly apprehensive, Oulanyah says Katumba told him he owes his life to the bodyguard who fought off the assailants, forcing them to flee. Amazingly the bodyguard escaped uninjured.
"He's the one [guard] who actually engaged the attackers. The attackers came from the back and the front and they were firing. So he got out and engaged the ones at the back and they ran away, he then engaged the ones at the front but the one in the front was very determined to finish whatever he'd started. So when he engaged him, he also ran away because the car was already down, he'd to hold the general and take him to someplace and hide because everybody had locked their doors there was nowhere to hide until he found some ramshackle place and took cover there," Oulanyah said.
Earlier, in a statement through his Twitter account, President Museveni blamed the bodyguard for firing in the air instead of directly at the attackers, whom he called pigs.
"The bodyguard should not have shot in the air. He should have shot to kill. We could be having a dead terrorist instead of scaring away the terrorists. His shooting saved Gen. Katumba by scaring the criminals away. However, killing one or more of the terrorists would have done the same and more," said Museveni.
According to some eyewitnesses, one of the assailants was actually injured during the shootout. Oulanyah says Katumba is heartbroken because of the assassination of his daughter which came just a day after losing his mother-in-law.
From his hospital bed, Katumba said he was out of danger because he didn't sustain any grave injuries and that God has given him a second chance. He however said he was devastated because "the guys" had killed his daughter and driver.
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