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Uganda: MP Charged With Sister's Murder
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New Vision (Kampala)
16 July 2008
Posted to the web 17 July 2008
Amlan Tumusiime and Pascal Kwesigwa
Kampala
BUHAGUZI county MP Tomson Abwooli Kyahurwenda has been charged with the murder of his half-sister and remanded to Kiryatete Prison in Hoima district.
Prosecutor Paul Ogwal said Kyahurwenda and five other suspects murdered Margaret Nsungwa in Ruhunga village, Buhimba county on May 18.
Simon Kirungi, Peregrine Kwikiriza, Fred Kyaligonza, Irumba Kihika, said to be Nsungwa's boyfriend and Scovia Nsungwa have already been charged.
Kyahurwenda, who is the deputy chairperson of the ruling NRM party, was arrested on Tuesday at the CID head office in Kibuli, Kampala, and transferred to Hoima to face the charges.
Wearing a kitenge (African) attire, a tense Kyahurwenda appeared before magistrate Obbo Londo who declined to allow him to take a plea on the grounds that the court did not have the power to try murder cases.
Some of the MP's friends and relatives who had filled the courtroom wept when the magistrate ordered that the MP be remanded.
The Police immediately put him onto their pick-up truck and whisked him to jail where he will stay until the next hearing on July 23.
Before his arrest, the MP had been summoned to the CID headquarters where he recorded a statement before being released on bond.
However, the Police arrested him when he reported again yesterday and immediately transferred him under tight security to Hoima where the crime was committed.
Nsungwa, a businesswoman, disappeared from home in Buhaguzi county two months ago. The Police dogs helped trace her mutilated body to a swamp in Ruhunga parish near Musajjamukuru in Buhimba sub-county, 15km from Hoima town. Her head, breast and private parts were cut off and have not been recovered.
Nsungwa had visited her boyfriend Kihika Irumba.
The Police said their boss Maj. Gen Kale Kayihura ordered the arrest of the MP after his co-accused implicated him. Earlier this year, the MP lost a child said to have been poisoned, which he blamed on his half-sister.
The MP, however, has denied any wrong-doing and instead blamed the problem on his political opponents. "I don't know anything. I will be cleared by the courts of law."
Earlier this month, about 10 members of Kyahurwenda's family demonstrated peacefully in Hoima town, demanding his arrest. They said he was a danger to them. His brother Geofrey Mpabaisi and the mother of the deceased, Edisa Kabajumba, were among the protesters.
Kyahurendwa is the fourth MP to be arrested over murder. In 2006, Reagan Okumu (Aswa) and Mike Ocula (Kilak) were charged with the murder of Alfred Bongomin, a local council official, but later acquitted.
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Edward Wesonga Kamana, the then Bubulo West MP, charged with the murder of Sergeant Maxwell Wasswa, was cleared in May 2002. Likewise, the court acquitted Busunju county MP Vincent Nyanzi of the murder of Vincent Mwebesa, who had supported his opponent for the parliamentary seat.
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