Kazini’s wife Phoebe (foreground) and relatives break down into tears at their home in Munyonyo, Kampala

By Vision reporters

THE local council chief of Wabigalo project zone, where former army commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini was slain, has been detained over the tragedy.

Security officers said they picked up Bosco Lule to assist with the investigation into the killing in Namuwongo, a Kampala suburb, on Tuesday morning.

According to sources, $300 was recovered from Lule. He allegedly got the money from Lydia Draru, the woman who confessed to killing Kazini by hitting him on the head with an iron bar.

It was not clear why the 28-year-old, who is a key suspect in the murder, handed over the money to Lule.

Staff at Wabigalo and Kabalagala Police stations confirmed his arrest but would not give details.

Lule is the second person held over the general’s death which left the city and the army fraternity in shock.

In an extra-judicial statement Draru recorded before a magistrate on Tuesday, she said a quarrel ensued after the general accused her of stealing his money.

It was not clear if the money she reportedly took from Kazini was the $300 the Police recovered from the LC boss, whom she said she alerted about the death.

In a related development, staff at the embassy of Southern Sudan disclosed yesterday that Kazini was set to travel to their country and had already acquired a visa.

“He came to our offices on Monday. He was supposed to travel to Juba,” a worker said.

Meanwhile, Anne Murangi, the manager of Okapi Gallery on Gaba Road, recollected that Kazini, accompanied by Draru, went there on Monday night.

He ordered a glass of Gilbeys gin mixed with water while his partner ordered a soda. The two, she recalled, were at midnight joined by two men, believed to be Indians, who walked away at 2:00am.

Kazini and his companion drove away in an army vehicle moments after the Indians left. Murangi dismissed reports that Draru was drunk, saying whenever the couple went to Okapi, she took soda. She described her as a “very quiet woman”.

Kazini was a regular guest at Okapi. So great was his love for Congolese music that a special folder of Lingala music was created on the computer and played whenever he was there.

Army spokesman Col. Felix Kulayigye said a funeral service would take place at All Saints Cathedral, Kampala at 10:00am today. Burial is set for tomorrow at Kazini’s ranch in Sanga in Kiruhura district.

The mood was sombre at the general’s home in Munyonyo last night, where a vigil was held. When the body was delivered in a brown coffin, about 100 people gathered in the compound were thrown in a frenzy, with some collapsing on the lawn.

At his country home in Kasharira village in Sanga sub-county in Kiruhura security was beefed up ahead of the burial.

Residents gathered there hailed Kazini for being generous and eliminating criminals who had terrorised the area.

Musa Muhumuza recalled that Kazini gave out 200 goats to residents of Kyarira village and at one time surrendered his houses in Kyarira town centre to displaced people.

He also contributed towards building schools, churches and financing the education of several children in the area, he said.

The North Ankole Bishop, John Muhanguzi, said Kazini helped orphans, widows and the elderly.

The head of the Banyabindi cultural and development trust, Kitakakaire Atwoki, said the cattle-keeping communities of the Basongora and Banyabindi had planned to appoint Kazini their cultural leader.


(Complied by Herbert Ssempogo,
Steven Candia, Hellen Mukiibi, Abdulkarim Ssengendo and Michael Karugaba)