Grenade kills three in Soroti

By Godfrey Ojore

Unknown assailants on Friday night hurled a grenade at a resident's home killing three people.

Nelson Enyedu 34, a resident of Owoonga village, Mukura parish, Asuret sub-county in Soroti district together with his two children died in the senseless attack.

According to the Police, the incident occurred at about 2:00am when Enyedu and his children were all asleep.

The dead children were identified as Enos Oguti, 12, who has been a primary four pupil of Mukura primary school and Christine Agado aged 4.

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Relatives and friends mourn the death of Enyedu and his two children. All photos/Godfrey Ojore

“The assailants used a grenade to attack this family in the wee hours of the morning and took off,” said the police spokesperson Kyoga East, Juma Hassan Nyene.

Enyedu, who separated with his wife a year ago, has been sharing the house with his six children.

Two children survived with serious injuries and are currently admitted at Soroti referral hospital while one child came out unhurt.

The admitted children are Rodha Apeduno, 12 and Nora Ainyo, 11. A four-year old Grace Ainyo survived the blast with no injury.

According to the deceased's elder brother John Robert Okwaput, the deceased started sharing his house with the children after theirs got burnt a month ago.

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Samuel Oiro, the LCI of the village bewildered by the incident

“I heard of the blast at night but I also decided to run to the bush together with my family until morning when we returned and discovered that my brother and his children were killed,” Okwaput said.

When asked whether he knew any information in connection to his brother’s death, he said his brother has never had any complaint in the village.

“I am also surprised that he was killed in that manner. We have been staying together peaceful,” Okwaput explained.

Enyedu, a primary four dropout, was the last born in a family of six.

Okwaput only admitted that his late brother had two failed relationships but he has been staying with his children from the two women.

“He chased his first wife of three children because of adultery then he married the second one that he separated over a domestic matter; they had also produced three children,” Okwaput explained.

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The house where Emenyu and his children were killed

The local leadership of the sub-county accused police of not responding in time and not doing enough to investigate cases of murder.

“This is the second murder in my sub-county with no suspect arrested yet police say they are investigating, up to when?” wondered a furious David Ejoku, the LC5 councilor representing Asuret.

The Police spokesperson said: “We are used to such complaints from members of the public that police are doing nothing. Do they know the suspects that we have failed to arrest? Let them give police information so that we act fast,” Nyene said.

He explained that the assailants could not be traced using a police sniffer dog because the scene of crime was trampled upon by people who came in after the incident.

Little Apeduno who survived the blast recalls people calling her father to open the door in the night.

“After calling father for long without getting any response they struggled to remove a brick and threw a bomb that produced a load bang,” Apeduno who is nursing torn lips, said.

She explained that she survived because she and her other sister were sleeping but her father and his brother were seated. 

“After the blast I crawled outside crying for help from neighbors but no one responded until morning when people came in,” Apeduno who was being put on transfusion, said with tears rolling down.

Their mother Caroline Apeduno, who was called to attend to the children, said that by the time they separated her husband had a quarrel with his brother over land.

“What I know is that he had misunderstandings with his brother over land and on several occasions he has issued him with death threats,” Apeduno said without mentioning the name of the brother.

She explained that “I have been preparing to return because we had resolved the misunderstanding that caused me to run away from him. I have been preparing to come but I received the sad news of my husband’s death and children,” a sobbing Apedundo said at the ward where the children are admitted.

However, the brother denied issuing death threats to his brother saying the land issue was resolved by their clan leaders.

“It was long since we had land problems here but that matter was resolved and we have been staying together,” Okwaput said

The postmortem report at Soroti referral hospital indicates that the victims died of multiple injuries inflicted by the grenade. The deceased will be laid to rest Sunday.