Woman rots in hospital after husband chops her arm

By Sofia Nalule

A woman's arm is rotting in hospital where she is receiving treatment after her jealous husband amputated it with a panga.

Lying on her bed at Mulago hospital in ward 3A with her face all puffed up and in unbearable pain, Joan Nakayiwa, a resident of Namungoona, , laboured to tell her shocking story.

I have spent eight years in marriage with my husband Moses Mbabazi (right below). We have so far moved house over ten times because of his overbearing ways and jealousness. true

I am only happy when I travel because he never allows me to speak to anyone when he is around. I have one child whose father I seperated with. Everytime we get a misunderstanding he accuses me of failing to bear him a child.

My father-in-law is Isingoma and hails from Masindi while my mother-in-law is from Tororo. I have never been to my in-laws' place but everytime I asked him to take me there he told me to be patient.

One Friday morning, Mbabazi called me and told me he was going to send me milk to prepare for my 7-year old girl, Namatovu, and said I could even share with the neighbours.

After about ten minutes, he called me again and and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was at work, and he hang up. He called again after one hour and asked me where I was. I replied: "I am at work; can't you hear noise in the background?"

At 7.00pm he called again and asked if I had reached home. "I want to talk to Namatovu and ask about her illness," he said. I told him I was on the way and would soon be home.

When I got home I called him and put Namatovu on phone. However, I had earlier seen him during the day around my place of work in St. Balikuddembe (Owino) market.

He got home at 9.00pm and found me eagerly waiting for him because he had been calling all day and I got the feeling he was really thinking about me.

I hugged him and even told him I had seen him around my work place earlier in the day. His face turned cloudy and barked at me saying I must have seen someone else.

After a while he said: ‘My people tell me you are seeing other men. Today I am going to cut you to pieces for wasting a lot of my money. All you do is just eat my things, what have you done for me?'

As I stood bewildered by his accusations and calculating what to reply, he whipped out a panga from the back of his shirt, and before I could say anything, he grabbed my arm and hacked it off! As he went about the 'operation' he accused me of just eating free food.

After chopping off her arm, Mbabazi fled the area but some residents says he had been seen around with a panga. They say when they accosted him he took to his heels and even switched off his phone.

Nakayiwa says she has never met any of her in-laws except for his mother whom she has seen just once.

Mbabazi is being charged with attempted murder on file number SD Ref 29/14/03/2013 of Namungoona police.

A neigbour to the couple, Sharon Nabbosa, says she has always seen Mbabazi helping with house chores then they would go to work together.

She says she had never heard any quarrel and always thought Mbabazi was the little girl's father.

The area LCI chairperson, David Male Namungoona, says in April last year he met Mbabazi and told him to register with authorities since he was new in the area, which he did. David says Mbabazi had shifted from Nateete and was his neighbour. However hardly a year had passed and he heard that he had shifted again. Hardly a month after hearing he had shifted he got news that Mbabazi had chopped off his wife's arm.

Juliet Babirye, Nakayiwa's sister says she always took long to see Mbabazi as he often travelled. She says her sister often told her Mbabazi always demanded to bear him a child.

She says on the fateful day, Mbabazi called her at midnight and asked her if she was aware that her sister was unwell. Juliet says she asked him what was wrong with her and he said her colleagues had informed him that she was badly off.

However not long after that she was informed that Mbabazi had amputated her sister and fled. She says when she called him he switched off the phone. The next morning he  called her threatening to also harm them.

Nakayiwa's mother, Immaculate Karugaba, says: Nakayiwa told me she had found a man. I advised her to bring him to me so I could meet him. They both promised to officially wed soon. After two years I introduced Mbabazi to Nakayiwa's father.

Nakayiwa's father asked him to make an agreement that he would take his daughter, which he did. A year later, Nakayiwa called me saying they were having serious misunderstandings and I advised her to first come back home.

She told me the man had beaten her to pulp and hidden all her clothes. Two months later I asked Mbabazi if he was still serious about my daughter and they reconciled.

Hardly a year later, I heard that Nakayiwa was at police for theft. Mbabazi was accusing her of stealing his money. Mbabazi was ten forced to retract the case and Nakayiwa was released. She came back home and I told her to forget about the man. Two weeks later he came home pleading for forgiveness and took her.