Ziggy Wine: Tortured musician succumbs to injuries

DEATH

KAMPALA - Ugandan musician and blogger Michael Kalinda, better known as Ziggy Wine, has died from injuries sustained during his recent torturous ordeal.

The member of the Firebase Crew was abducted by unknown people while on his way to the recording studios in Kamwokya on July 21 and later found dumped at Mulago with his left eye plucked out and two fingers snipped off.

He breathed his last at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, where he was admitted Sunday evening.

James Mubiru, who worked closely with him, confirmed the artiste's death early Monday.

"It is hard to believe that my brother, my friend and fellow comrade in the struggle has gone to meet with the Lord. We have tried all we can in our capacity to see Ziggy makes it but, unfortunately, in vain," said Mubiru.

The motorbike he was riding the day he disappeared last month is also missing.

Ziggy Wine was a social media blogger and an upcoming musician attached to Firebase Crew, owned by Kyadondo East MP and musician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine).

A week after his kidnap, Ziggy Wine was found abandoned at Mulago, unconscious and with burns on his entire body, believed to be inflicted using a flat iron.

On Thursday, Bobi Wine Bobi Wine talked of how his "close friend" had been tortured.

"My close friend and fellow artiste (Ziggy Wine) was kidnapped a couple of weeks back, beaten beyond recognition, his left eye plucked out, two of his fingers cut off, all his belongings taken and dumped in Mulago Hospital and left for dead," he said.

He said that at the time, Ziggy Wine was in such a bad state that he had lost nearly all his senses and was surviving by God's mercy.

In an earlier interview with New Vision, Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson Patrick Onyango had said they were yet to register a complaint from the musician's family but that they would investigate to find out who was behind the kidnap.

"We will try to establish if it is true he was kidnapped. We will also wait for him to recover and record statements on whether he remembers where he was being detained," Onyango said then.


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