Herbalist left for dead as wife is beheaded

By Margaret Ziribaggwa & John Bosco Mulyowa

A herbalist was left for dead when assailants attacked his home on Friday night and chopped off his arm while his wife was beheaded in a heinous act that left their children traumatised.

Ssande Kagolo Katende, 45, of Kyabakazi also the head of the herbalists' association in Rakai district survived only because his assailants thought he was dead. His daughter narrated the ordeal.

17-year old Jackie Nakitende said she had gone to bed with her siblings when she heard her mother, Cissy Nakalawa, begging for her life and pleading 'please don't kill us'. She says they then started making an alarm calling for help.

Shortly after she heard her father too shouting for help.

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Relatives to the deceased mourning

Jackie said the neighbours did not respond fast enough. "The thugs too off and we went to the parents' bedroom to see what had happened," she said.

However Nakitende with her siblings were not prepared for the traumatising sight that met them. Their mother had been hacked like a beast and beheaded while her father lay in a pool of blood hardly able to move. His arm had been chopped off.

Neighbours rushed Ssande to hospital as police were called to the crime scene.

Police detectives from Kaliisizo headed by CID boss Rose Kakooza went to the crime scene on Saturday and deployed sniffer dogs to aid in investigations. However the dogs only tracked the scent to the neighbour, John Baptist Balyamuziba, who was the first to reach the scene and help Ssande.

Relatives speak

Nakalawa's (right) elder brother Swaibu Magembe says the murder could have been sparked off by a misunderstanding between Ssande and someone he indentified only as Fred. true

Magembe said in 2011 Fred came to see Ssande after he murdered his father in Mbarara.

He wanted Ssande's intervention to block investigations into the murder.

However when Ssande discovered the issue involved a murder he reported the case to police leading to the arrest of Fred and his wife.

It is reported that Fred broke out of jail and has been baying for blood since then.

He had on several occasions threatened to harm Ssande and his family and even told him to devise all means and see to it that his wife is release from jail.

Despite that the wife was released Fred continued to threaten him.

Relatives said last Wednesday, two days before the murder, Fred went top Ssande's home purpotedly to tell him something but vanished without delivering the message.