City tycoon SK Mbuga detained for assaulting lover

KAMPALA - The Police in Kampala have arrested Kampala tycoon and socialite SK (Sulaiman Kabangala) Mbuga for assaulting his lover, musician Leila Kayondo, after he reportedly found her on an outing with a mysterious man.

Mbuga was picked on the evening of January 1 from a bar in Kabalagala, bundled onto a police pickup and locked up at Kabalagala Police Station where detectives preferred charges of assault against him.

The arrest followed a complaint filed by Kayondo alleging that her lover beat her badly and caused bodily harm including pain in her jaw, where she complained of a serious toothache, on top of sustaining a bruised face.

Singer Kayondo was given Police Form 3 and went for medical checkup but when she did not see Mbuga arrested immediately, she took to social media (Facebook) to appeal to Police chief Gen. Kale Kayihura for intervention.

She alleged that Mbuga had on several occasions assaulted and wanted to kill her but that all the time she had reported cases of assault against him, the police had frustrated her.

The incident

Police spokesman Patrick Onyango addresses the press at Kabalagala Police Station as Kayondo listens on

It is alleged that Mbuga found Kayondo at Speke Resort Munyonyo on 31 December - a day before celebrating her birthday - having fun on an outing with a fellow artiste and in the company of a Congolese tycoon who was unknown to Mbuga, forcing him to quiz her, and interrogation that morphed into a fight.

It is alleged that when IGP Kayihura got the information through social media that the police had frustrated Kayondo, he instructed for the immediate arrest of Mbuga.

The Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Patrick Onyango on Saturday addressed a press conference at Kabalagala Police station that was attended by the feuding lovers - Kayondo and Mbuga.

He said that the police had been looking for Mbuga until they cornered him in a bar in Kabalagala on Friday evening.

Onyango said the police surprisingly found Mbuga in the company of Kayondo, and that although she tried to plead that she had put the case behind her, the police was adamant and arrested the tycoon, saying they declined to resolve the matter at night and from a bar.

Onyango said Kayondo followed the suspect and when he was locked behind bars, she threatened to sleep at the counter until he is released, saying that Mbuga was sick and his health condition would not allow him to stay in police cells - excuses the police could hear none of.

‘We have to deal with him'

Onyango said the police wanted to show that Mbuga was not above the law, adding that it was not true that he had corrupted anybody anywhere not to be arrested.

"Mbuga cannot run away from the law, it is not true as people say, that Mbuga used money. He is a very small man in town, we have to deal with him."

The police spokesperson told journalists that they would see the way forward after Kayondo wrote an additional statement indicating that she had lost interest in the case she had filed, since it was a matter of domestic relations. He said the police personnel also counseled the couple.

‘I am sorry'

The two lovers showed that they had put the incident behind them by shaking hands

 
Kayondo was forced to apologize to the police for accusing them of failure to help her.

"Yes we had a disagreement and resorted to a fight. I reported a case of assault and I was told to go to hospital for treatment but when I failed to see the officer who worked on my case, I resorted to social media.

"I was angered because I wanted Mbuga to come to police and explain why he did that to me," she told journalists before the police.

The singer said she had later resolved the matter with Mbuga and that she had forgiven him, and regretted saying she acted from too much anger.

"I expected the police to follow the case immediately, but I have now taken down some of the posts on my Facebook account, I'm sorry but I did not know it would cause that much attention" she said.

At the time of the press conference, Kayondo appeared to have a sore eye although the swellings in her face had disappeared.

‘Women have too much anger'

On the incident, she insisted that she was out for lunch with her friend who was with another person she was seeing for the first time when Mbuga confronted her.

On his part, Mbuga told journalists that he had accepted Kayondo's apology and forgiven her but he said she also beat him during the fight.

He said he acted out of anger after he found her with people he did not expect her to be with, and in a place where he did not expect her to be.

Sources revealed that a friend who saw Kayondo getting cozy with a man phoned Mbuga, who arrived moments later in the company of his friends.

"You know she is a woman, women are always like that, they have too much anger and they are not like us men, so I don't blame her so much," he said.

Tycoon Mbuga's friends at Kabalagala Police Station

Mbuga was recently introduced by another fiancé, which sources said must have angered Kayondo but he defended it saying as a Muslim, he had liberty to have more than one wife, and insisted that Kayondo was still his wife.

Other sources intimated that Mbuga gave Kayondo shs10m to make preparations for her birthday celebrations on January 1 but he was shocked to find her with another man a day before the party.

Mbuga had also demanded that she returns keys of the car he had just bought her, which resulted in a heated argument and later a fight. 

By Saturday early evening, Mbuga was still at Kabalagala Police Station.