Kiboga man 'hacks' father to death over land

A 29-year-old man in a remote village in Kiboga district has killed his father and left his mother with life-threatening injuries over land issues.

When Godfrey Tatu committed the gruesome crime on Thursday night, he first escaped, but later handed himself in to the police.

A resident of Kabanda village in Lwamata sub-county, Tatu reportedly hacked his 80-year-old father to death with a hoe. He is then said to have attacked his mother, 60, with the same implement, but she managed to escape albeit with head injuries.

The incident happened at the elderly couple's home late evening.

It is understood the killer son had long threatened to bring to end his parents' lives if they did not give him his share of land and other properties.

His father, James Lwasa, died shortly after reaching Kiboga Hospital and by Saturday, Maria Tereza Kabilungi's conditioned had not improved - according to a hospital nurse on duty who preferred anonymity.

Mourners carry the casket containing the remains of Lwasa. (Credit: Nelson Kiva)

Lwasa did not survive the wrath of his son. (Credit: Nelson Kiva)

Relatives and residents say that Tatu has long been at loggerheads with his parents and had made it public that he would murder them on grounds that his father was refusing to give him part of the family land as his inheritance.

On the fateful night

Emmanuel Kakooza, an in-law, revealed that on the fateful night, Tatu went to his parents' home with his five-year-old son and a jerrycan.

"He entered the house, picked a basin and asked his parents who were outside for something he could use to clean his son and the parents replied that there was nothing."

Kakooza narrated that Tatu picked a machete (panga) and shredded a new sack his father had bought and when his father asked him why he had done that, the young man picked a hoe and hit him twice on the forehead.

He then reportedly pursued his mother who was trying to escape into the bush and hit her on the forehead too with the hoe, before he vanished into the night.

With the help of the police from Mukafunda, residents, who had caught the screams, moment later rushed the victims to Kiboga Hospital, where Lwasa breathed his last upon arrival.

Preparations for burial included cooking food for mourners. (Credit: Nelson Kiva)

Tatu handed himself in to Lwamata Police Station the same night before he was transferred to Kiboga Central Police Station.

He faces charges of murder.

"All the time he came here, he could tell his father to give him his share of land and other properties or else he will kill him and his mother," said Kakooza.

The suspect's elder brother, John Ssemakula, said that their father gave Tatu the first piece of land and he sold it. The old man then followed it up with another piece of land which he sold too.

 "He also stole our father's two cows and two goats and sold them but our father kept quiet until he did this [committed the crime]," said Ssemakula.

Bua Alpha, the officer in charge of Mukafunda police post, said that the case file was being prepared to aid prosecution of the suspect in the courts of law.

When contacted for a comment, the Kiboga district police commander, Hannington Busheija confirmed the incident but declined to divulge further details as he was out of office.