POLICE | MURDER | CRIME                             

SSEMBABULE - The Police in Ssembabule have arrested a 17-year-old student and were still hunting others in connection to the brutal murder of a 15-year-old boy accusing him of allegedly stealing a mobile phone. 

The student (names withheld) a resident of Nsambya village in Mitima was arrested after the police retrieved the body of Nicholas Ssewannonda, 15, from a dam located on a farm where he was doing casual work. 

The deceased, according to the police, went missing on November 1 and a search had been mounted without success. 

The murder took place at Gentebe village, Nsoga parish in Mijwala Sub County where the police, following a tip-off, retrieved Ssewannonda’s body. 

It is alleged that Ssewannonda was employed by Godfrey Mujabi, 42, to work on his farm during the COVID-19 lockdown after schools were closed down and he has been milking the cows and helping to vend milk. 

According to the Greater Masaka Police spokesman, Muhammad Nsubuga, the police examined the body and found out the deceased had been wrapped in a sack and tied on two heavy metallic bars and dumped in a pond.  

Nsubuga said that Mujabi, the father of the suspect first called the deceased’s relatives and informed them about the missing boy. 

He later tipped the police after information started leaking that the deceased had been killed by his son. 

The police registered the case as murder by assault. 

Nsubuga stated that after the father made a report to Ssembabule Police Station, the student was arrested and after intensive questioning, he confessed to the murder and led the police to the water dam where he had dumped the body. 

He revealed that he assaulted two boys working on the farm including one Kankunda but he decided to zero on Ssewannonda to force him to reveal the whereabouts of his phone. 

He said after killing him, tied two pit axes around the sack and dumped him in his father’s farm. 

Claudioo Ssekabira, the father of the deceased and a resident of Misojjo village in Mijwala said that his son had been employed to milk cows and sell milk for the farm owner but he went missing for two weeks. 

He said the police informed him after getting information that the missing boy had been found dead. 

He said that he had got rumours that the son of the farm owner complained against his son suspecting that he had stolen his phone and decided to torture him and when he failed to get any information, he beat him to death. 

He said sources told him that the suspect first dumped the body in the bush but to conceal evidence, he later dumped it in a pond. 

He explained that by the time the body was retrieved, it had started decomposing and disfigured. 

The police handed over the body after carrying out a post mortem as hunt for other suspects continues.    

The homicide team commanded by the Detective CID officer, ASP Andrew Ainembabazi have interviewed several people who knew about the assault.