Assailants hack butcher to death in Rukiga forest

Police in Rukiga district were on Wednesday still hunting unknown assailants who waylaid a butcher and hacked him to death. 

The deseased has been identified as Benson Turyagyenda aka Kibeni, a businessman and a resident of Nyarubisi cell on the  Rwamucucu-Kashambya sub-counties boundary.

The killers are believed to have trailed Turyagenda in a dark forest deep in the night as he went to buy animals for sale. 

In a statement released by Kigezi region Police spokesperson Elly Maate, the incident registered as murder by cutting on file registration CRB 189/2023, occurred on the night of April 10, 2023, at an unknown time. 

He said as usual, the deceased woke up in the night and set off to the market where he usually buys cows and goats for slaughter.  

On the fateful night, according to Maate, the assailants who were armed with sharp objects trailed the deceased and waylaid him deep in the middle of a pine forest at a place called Omukitaba in Nyarubisi cell in Kitanga Parish, Kashambya sub-county. 

"He was hacked several times on the head, neck and right hand," Maate said. 

The body was on Tuesday morning at about 9:30am seen by people passing through the forest and informed local leaders. The leaders later informed the Police that responded to the scene. 

Information obtained by Police from his colleagues and friends indicated that on Saturday before Easter, he collected shillings 798,500 from the sale of meat and that he got more money from a savings and credit organisation he subscribed to. 

It is said he wanted to use the money to buy more animals from the market at Karukara in Noozi parish, Rwamucucu sub-county.  

A team of investigators recovered some exhibits from the scene and conveyed the body to Mparo Health Centre IV for a post-mortem. It was later delivered to his home for burial as inquiries continue.