Cab driver vanishes for a week, found murdered
May 10, 2015
A family breadwinner leaves his home in the night to chauffeur a customer to the airport, only to turn up dead days later.
By Amon Mukasa & Joseph Makumbi
It's the kind of stuff made of nightmares; a family bread winner left his home in the night to chauffeur a customer to the airport, only to turn up dead after vanishing for a week.
Such is the tragedy that befell Isaac Talugende Baheha, a cab driver who operated at the Grand Imperial Hotel taxi stage in the city centre.
Talugende's body was discovered Thursday at noon in a swamp in Kyampisi sub-county, Mukono district.
His feet were bound with a rope; he was gagged with a piece of cloth, heavily stuffed in his mouth, and his head all bound with cello tape, with only the eyes visible.
He had last been seen on April 30 when he left his home in Mukono to take a customer to Entebbe International Airport.
The grieving widow, Justine Babirye, had told the police that on the fateful night her husband vanished, someone kept calling him on phone purportedly reminding him that he was to take him to the airport at 10.00pm local time.
Talugende's decomposing body was found in a swamp and retrieved by police. PHOTO/Amon Mukasa
Talugende had left his home in Kabembe - Mukono driving his Toyota Raum, registration number UAW 717S; that would be the last time he would be seen alive.
His family and relatives had reported to the police his mysterious disappearance on file number SD:09/02/05/2015.
While police investigated were under way, a pungent smell emanating from a swamp drew the attention of a resident, a week after Talugende had vanished. As it later turned out, Talugende, a father of four, had been brutally murdered.
Discovering the body
An area resident, Jalia Nakitende, said she often crossed a spring at Lwajjali in Kyampisi sub-county, but had started sniffing a pungent smell that seemed to worsen every day.
At first she thought it was a carcass of a dog, but she eventually went on to alert a police crime preventer in the area as the odour got more offensive.
Shocked residents gather around after Talugende's body is retrieved from the swamp. PHOTO/Amon Mukasa
A search of the area led to the grisly discovery of Talugende's decomposing body.
Police from Seeta led by the criminal investigations boss, Moses Mayanja were called to the scene to retrieve the rotting corpse. That's when residents identified the body as that of someone they knew.
When Talugende's wife was informed of his death, she lamented about who would provide for her one-month-old baby.
The deceased had two wives; the elder, Jalia Talugende was the one staying with him. Babirye, the younger one, lives in a rented house in Kabembe trading centre.
“Oh God! You have punished me; what will I do with this young child?” mourned Babirye.
Talugende was buried that day because of the state of his remains.
What his colleague says
The chairperson, Grand Imperial Tours and Travel Cooperative Society, Kiwanuka Bukenya, said Talugende always retired for the night between 8.00pm and 8:30pm local time but on the fateful day he left much earlier because he had a late night job.
He said Talugende had two days before chauffeured the customer he was to drop off that fateful night.
He explained that it was Talugende's wife who had informed them of his disappearance, whihc prompted them to keep calling his phones that, at first, went unanswered, then eventually went off.
Kiwanuka also narrated how a week before Talugende's disappearance, another cab driver, Richard Teefe, had his vehicle, a Toyota Premio Super, stolen.
Teefe had been hired at the stage to take customers to Bukasa, Muyenga.
On reaching their destination the assailants attempted to strangle him but he put up a fight and managed to flee from the car before they sped off.
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