Murdered girl's parents, classmates for counseling

By Chris Kiwawulo                          

The Uganda Counseling Association is to offer free counseling services to family members and former classmates of Joan Namazzi, a 17-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered by unknown people.

Ali Male, the association spokesperson told New Vision on Wednesday that they were in touch with the administration of St. Mark’s College Namagoma and they have allowed them to counsel the students.

“Namazzi’s fellow students especially classmates and the family must be traumatized by her death. What they are going through needs counseling,” Male said.

Namazzi was kidnapped and murdered by unknown assailants on March 19, 2014. Police have since arrested at least four people in connection with the murder. By yesterday, Namazzi’s family members said the assailants were still calling and tormenting them.

Namazzi was abducted on her way from Kyambogo University where she had gone to visit her elder sister. She was murdered after the family failed to pay a ransom of sh2m that the kidnappers asked for. Her mother, Maimuna Namatovu, said the girl had just returned from school after she was sent away over school dues.

Namazzi’s sister said they parted ways at around 3:00pm on the fateful day. At around 10:00pm, the deceased’s sister received a phone call from her mother inquiring about the whereabouts of Namazzi since she had not returned home in Nabbingo.

This was after a man called the mother (Namatovu) demanding for a sh2m ransom and made Namazzi to speak to her. When Namatovu failed to fulfill the kidnappers’ monetary demand, they directed her to Kikajjo in Namasuba where they dumped her body.

Namazzi was the second girl to be murdered in a period of barely two months. Namazzi was abducted and killed in the same way Emily Akire, a second year student of business administration at Makerere University Business School, was murdered – and the killers are still at large in both cases.