Man plotted to have wife robbed; shot for sh20,000

By Elia Luyimbazi

A gang of thugs has revealed how a man contracted them to rob his wife who is fighting for her life at Mulago hospital after they shot her.

On the fatal evening assistant Director of Public Prosecution Joan Kagezi was shot in cold blood in Kiwatule, armed thugs trailed a mobile money vendor, Phiona Twikirize, from her work place in Mmengo to Bunnamwaya on her way home and shot her in the chest and buttocks before making off with her purse - which had only sh20,000.

Twikirize had just been robbed of sh14m over the weekend on Saturday as she went home. On a successive attack on Monday she had been careful not to carry money, but nearly paid with her life when she put up a fight during the robbery.

Unknown to Twikirize, her own husband, Abdu Kirunga, was behind the attacks on her life.

Following the attacks police has been working aggressively behind the scenes, arresting several suspects believed to have nearly put Twikirize to her death.

Suspects (l-r) Saaka Nsubuga and Isaac Ssemakula Nyaru confessed they had been hired by Kirunga

The criminal investigations boss Katwe police, Benon Ayebare said during interrogations the suspects kept giving contradicting statements till a tried and tested interrogation method of putting them together worked against them.

How the plot was hatched

It emerged that Twikirize's husband Kirunga, a mechanic in Mmengo, had overtime noticed that his wife always returned home with wads of cash and hatched a plot to rob from her.

Suspects (l-r) Joseph Kayongo and Gordon Atibu Kwizera confessed they had been hired by Kirunga

Kirunga approached a friend, Yasimu Kunyekera, and briefed him about the 'deal'. He asked Yasimu if he could get him someone who could execute the mission, who in turn briefed a colleague, Ssaaka Nsubuga.

Ssaka put together a hit squad that comprised of Gordon Atibu, Joseph Kayongo Ssembalirwa and Wilfred Muganizi.

However they told Kirunga they had to hire a gun to successfully execute the mission.

Kirunga got cold feet instantly and abandoned the group, but the damage had already been done. He contracted other people who managed to rob Twikirize of sh14m, but the hit squad he had abandoned without their knowledge, was already on his wife's trail.

This is the squad that tracked Twikirize and shot her before fleeing with her purse that had just sh20,000 in it.

Ayebare said the interrogation method had broken the men because they had been making contradictory statements.
He also revealed that the men had all served time at Kigo prison and that's how they became acquaintances.

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