Rally ace Muhangi in prison

RALLY driver Charles Muhangi, his lawyer Geoffrey Nangumya and his bodyguard David Ochaya were yesterday charged with murder in Mbarara and subsequently sent on remand at Kakiika government Prison until October 28.

By Kyomuhendo Muhanga
RALLY driver Charles Muhangi, his lawyer Geoffrey Nangumya and his bodyguard David Ochaya were yesterday charged with murder in Mbarara and subsequently sent on remand at Kakiika government Prison until October 28.

The three appeared before Grade One Magistrate Carolyn Kintu Langu.

Prosecution said Charles Muhangi, 49, Geoffrey Nangumya, 37 and David Ochaya, 30, with others on Tuesday shot and killed Resty Mugabirwe, a shopkeeper and George Twakira, a boda boda cyclist, in Mbarara town.

“You are all charged with murder in accordance with section 188/189 of the penal code,” the prosecutor said after reading the charges to them.

Muhangi and his co-accused were arrested on Tuesday after a morning fracas between him and Jamil Bakyase, the proprietor of a public bus park in town.

Jamil Bakyase and Charles Muhangi confronted each other over the establishment of a new bus park in the town. As crowds gathered, gunfire rocked the town as people fled in disarray. Two were shot dead and another injured by a bullet.

The deceased were residents of Kakyeka in Mbarara municipality but hail from Kyampene village in Ntungamo district.

Twakira, the cyclist, had just dropped a passenger at the Horizon bus Park when he was killed, while Mugabirwe was opening her shop. Her husband David Baguma, an engineer with Uganda Diary Corporation, was critically injured and is in Mbarara Hospital nursing bullet wounds. Ends