Ndyomugenyi took a bullet to the head but survived

By Susan Muyiyi

The sound of gun shots rang inside Shopper’s Plaza and a stray bullet grazed his fore head before hitting the roof. Blood gushed from the wound on his head literally blinding his eyes. He blacked out.

“It felt cold on my body,” John Ndyomugyenyi, the national chairman of the Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association (UTODA), recalls. It all started with a scuffle inside the building on March 28, 2007 at around 3:00pm.Earlier on in the day, one of the market vendors at St. Balikuddembe (Owino) had been killed during a stand-off with guards hired by businessman Hassan Bassajjabalaba and the market vendors over who should manage the market. An angry mob chased the guards who stormed the UTODA offices in an attempt to seek refuge.

“There were several people pushing and shoving with all sorts of weapons aimed at Basajjabalaba’s guards,” he says.

The Saracen security guards at Shopper’s Plaza building were taken by surprise and could not contain the situation especially when the mob threatened to pounce on them for standing in their way.

One of the guards (Basajjabalaba’s) was beaten and hospitalised. He died shortly afterwards. Struggling to keep afloat the angry mob, Bwire David Wafula (one of the Saracen guards) fired shots to disperse the crowd. By this time, most of the workers in the building were watching the events unfold before their eyes, Ndoyumugenyi was no exception. He, however, thought it wise to caution his colleagues to lock up lest the rowdy protestors pounce on their property like was usually the case. That was when the stray bullet struck.

“I didn’t feel any pain immediately after the gun went off. I prayed that I would either live or just die.” The rest of the story he says was narrated days later when he came to his senses.

“Chris Sengoba and Robert Makanga, the vice chairman and marketing manager of UTODA respectively, removed their shirts, tied my head to control bleeding and rushed me to Case Clinic.”

He was immediately taken to theatre and operated on.

Meanwhile rumours that he was dead made rounds on some radio stations, something that prompted his children and relatives to make frantic calls to figure out the truth.

Like luck would have it, a team of specialist doctors were available to ascertain the extent of the damage to his skull. “The brain CT scan revealed a cracked skull but thank God the bullet hadn’t lodged in my head. However, there were three fragments on top of the brain. The doctor later told me that if they had sank, I would be a dead man now,” Ndyomugyenyi says with a surprised look. The implications of what had happened started sinking in four days after the incident.

“The pain was so unbearable. I prayed to live.” Although surgery was an option, it was risky.

“The doctors said the fragments had to be removed one by one. And it wasn’t guaranteed that I would live. They said that 99% of the people with injuries like the ones I had died even after an operation.”

He stayed in the hospital for a month and was allowed time to rest for another month. At 60, the option of having plastic surgery was ruled out.

“I am grateful to be alive;” he says while contemplating the ease with which one’s life can end.

The bullet holes in the pillar gape like monuments outside his office.

“Look at my breathing skull,” he jokingly says while touching the depression and scar on his forehead. A big hat protects his head whenever he goes out on a hot day. Other than the high blood pressure which worsened after the incident, Ndyomugenyi is healthy. A thanks-giving service came naturally and so did a visit to his relatives in Kabale.

“I pray every Sunday because I believe that God had a hand in saving my life. I shudder to think what would have happened if the bullet had sunk — I would now be a dead man. I believe that God still had some work for me to finish. I was saved to give a testimony.”

Ndyomugenyi pays attention to a healthy lifestyle by jogging, eating healthy and taking walks.