Tension, blame-game at Tinkasimire's wife's burial

By Charles Etukuri & Moses Nampala

At the tension-filled funeral of MP Barnabas Tinkasimire’s wife – Agnes Ageno – last week, family members asked the Police to carry out a thorough investigation into the murder.

Ageno was laid to rest in Katandi village, Kirewa sub county, Tororo  district.

Police personnel from Kampala, Mbale and Tororo were deployed in the area due to fears that Ageno’s relatives would attack Tinkasiimire.

The media have quoted Ageno’s relatives as saying Tinkasiimire could have been behind the attack against her over fears that she might block him from wedding a new wife.

But the youthful legislator has since denied a hand in the death of his reportedly former wife.

Speakers, including the deputy prime minister of the Jopadhola Adhola cultural institution, Zachary Ochieng and the leader of Ageno’s Nyapolo Ogule clan, blamed Tinkasimire, saying even if he was not party to the killing, he had placed his wife in a vulnerable situation.

“You had the means, but you didn’t provide her with security. Ironically there is heavy deployment at her funeral which we feel was not necessary for we are a God-fearing family,” said Masinga, attracting an angry response from the crowd.

At the funeral, Tinkasiimire was accompanied by Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Sekikubo.

He said he had arranged with the President to take Ageno abroad for special treatment, but she died too soon.

He pledged to take full care of Ageno’s niece, Catherine Akoth, who was with Ageno at the time of the attack and also sustained injuries.

Soon after the attack, the Police said they were following four leads.

The leads are: the possibility that Tinkasiimire was involved, city businessmen whose illegal structures were demolished, the tenant and a married man who Ageno was allegedly involved with.

Police sources said none of these lines of investigations has been closed. The file has since been transferred from Mukono Police Station to the Kireka based Special Investigations Unit.