Who is Tom Nkurunjira?
WHEN Brenda Karamuzi, 26, went missing on January 21, friends and family members mounted a search that yielded no results until January 31 when her body was recovered from a septic tank in a city suburb.
By Chris Kiwawulo
WHEN Brenda Karamuzi, 26, went missing on January 21, friends and family members mounted a search that yielded no results until January 31 when her body was recovered from a septic tank in a city suburb.
The girl’s body was discovered when a fumigator, Charles Wamono, who was hired to disinfect the septic tank in apartments rented by city businessman Tom Nkurunjira in Bukasa, Muyenga, stumbled on a body after removing the underground tank’s manhole cover.
Nkurunjira was charged on Friday (February 5) with the murder of Brenda at Makindye magistrate’s court. He appeared before Magistrate Immaculate Busingye, Makindye Court Grade One Magistrate but denied the charges. He was remanded to Luzira prison until February 23 when the case will come up for mention.
Tom Nkurunjira, 37, is a soft-spoken man when in a good mood. Nkurunjira, a Mufumbira from Kisoro, went to Namasagali College for his O’ level and Namilyango College School for A’ level.
After his A’ level, he went to India and on return, told friends that he had acquired a degree in business. A friend who studied with him at Namilyango remembers Nkurunjira as a brilliant but very arrogant young man.
Initially, Nkurunjira used his father’s surname, Ntegyerizimana. But students at Namasagali forced him to drop it when they made fun of it and he got annoyed.
Nkurunjira has been an introvert since his school days, the reason why most of his friends knew little about the chubby-cheeked 37-year-old bespectacled man.
“He used to come to school with an exotic red chair that he would sit on in class. He would carry it to class for lessons and take it back to the dormitory after classes,†the friend says.
Peers know Nkurunjira as an outgoing person who has been living a lavish lifestyle characterised by occasional change of vehicles.
According to friends, Nkurunjira’s father was a wealthy man with property in Kampala and Kisoro. “But when his father passed on in the late 1990s, Nkurunjira sold some of the property in the city centre and in Muyenga. He started living large and became more arrogant. His mother had died before his father,†a friend narrates.
Although the charge sheet says Nkurunjira was working with Procom Investments Limited on Ganesh Plaza along Entebbe road, his friends differ.
“Tonku had no job. In fact the money he got from the property he sold got finished and he was now desperate because family members put caveats on the remaining property,†says a close friend.
A story is told of how he sold a piece of land in Muyenga to a rich man who put up houses and took Nkurunjira on as one of his tenants. Nkurunjira neglected his siblings, some of whom are now living miserable lives after their parents’ death.
Back at his home in Kisoro, a friend adds, the village elders saved the family land he was selling when they fundraised and claimed to have bought the land and yet they had not done so.
Nkurunjira is said to have been a close friend to the late Brenda Karamuzi and regularly visited her at a friend’s home in Ntinda. He had no child known to his friends.
Like Brenda, Nkurunjira also liked hanging out and was a regular in a popular drinking joint in Bugolobi, a city suburb, a close friend and former classmate says.
Neighbours in Muyenga say Nkurunjira was a very sophisticated and unpredictable man. “It seems he had a second residence. You could hardly tell whether he was sleeping in the house or not.
He could spend sometime without sleeping in that house,†a neighbour says on condition of anonymity.
Nkurunjira once had a girlfriend whom he told friends went to the UK in the early 2000s. But his friends say they have never seen the girl again. According to the charge sheet particulars, Nkurunjira was a resident of Kijjwa zone in Bunga, Makindye division. But a friend told The New Vision that Nkurunjira had several friends’ homes where he would sleep. “When he was not in Muyenga, he would be in several other homes around the city,†the friend said.
WHEN Brenda Karamuzi, 26, went missing on January 21, friends and family members mounted a search that yielded no results until January 31 when her body was recovered from a septic tank in a city suburb.
The girl’s body was discovered when a fumigator, Charles Wamono, who was hired to disinfect the septic tank in apartments rented by city businessman Tom Nkurunjira in Bukasa, Muyenga, stumbled on a body after removing the underground tank’s manhole cover.
Nkurunjira was charged on Friday (February 5) with the murder of Brenda at Makindye magistrate’s court. He appeared before Magistrate Immaculate Busingye, Makindye Court Grade One Magistrate but denied the charges. He was remanded to Luzira prison until February 23 when the case will come up for mention.
Tom Nkurunjira, 37, is a soft-spoken man when in a good mood. Nkurunjira, a Mufumbira from Kisoro, went to Namasagali College for his O’ level and Namilyango College School for A’ level.
After his A’ level, he went to India and on return, told friends that he had acquired a degree in business. A friend who studied with him at Namilyango remembers Nkurunjira as a brilliant but very arrogant young man.
Initially, Nkurunjira used his father’s surname, Ntegyerizimana. But students at Namasagali forced him to drop it when they made fun of it and he got annoyed.
Nkurunjira has been an introvert since his school days, the reason why most of his friends knew little about the chubby-cheeked 37-year-old bespectacled man.
“He used to come to school with an exotic red chair that he would sit on in class. He would carry it to class for lessons and take it back to the dormitory after classes,†the friend says.
Peers know Nkurunjira as an outgoing person who has been living a lavish lifestyle characterised by occasional change of vehicles.
According to friends, Nkurunjira’s father was a wealthy man with property in Kampala and Kisoro. “But when his father passed on in the late 1990s, Nkurunjira sold some of the property in the city centre and in Muyenga. He started living large and became more arrogant. His mother had died before his father,†a friend narrates.
Although the charge sheet says Nkurunjira was working with Procom Investments Limited on Ganesh Plaza along Entebbe road, his friends differ.
“Tonku had no job. In fact the money he got from the property he sold got finished and he was now desperate because family members put caveats on the remaining property,†says a close friend.
A story is told of how he sold a piece of land in Muyenga to a rich man who put up houses and took Nkurunjira on as one of his tenants. Nkurunjira neglected his siblings, some of whom are now living miserable lives after their parents’ death.
Back at his home in Kisoro, a friend adds, the village elders saved the family land he was selling when they fundraised and claimed to have bought the land and yet they had not done so.
Nkurunjira is said to have been a close friend to the late Brenda Karamuzi and regularly visited her at a friend’s home in Ntinda. He had no child known to his friends.
Like Brenda, Nkurunjira also liked hanging out and was a regular in a popular drinking joint in Bugolobi, a city suburb, a close friend and former classmate says.
Neighbours in Muyenga say Nkurunjira was a very sophisticated and unpredictable man. “It seems he had a second residence. You could hardly tell whether he was sleeping in the house or not.
He could spend sometime without sleeping in that house,†a neighbour says on condition of anonymity.
Nkurunjira once had a girlfriend whom he told friends went to the UK in the early 2000s. But his friends say they have never seen the girl again. According to the charge sheet particulars, Nkurunjira was a resident of Kijjwa zone in Bunga, Makindye division. But a friend told The New Vision that Nkurunjira had several friends’ homes where he would sleep. “When he was not in Muyenga, he would be in several other homes around the city,†the friend said.