In 1987 when Dr Andrew Kayiira was killed, Mr Henry Gombya, his host, had Shs50m at his home. Uganda had just undergone a currency reform the previous year and by all means Shs50m was a lot of money. The killers, according to the investigators, asked about the money and indeed made off with whatever of it they could lay their hands on after killing Kayiira. This shows that the killers had advance knowledge of the presence of the money and Dr Kayiira in the house. How did they get all this information? Was the money the reason for the killing, or the killers had been hired and only took advantage to collect some extra buck? In this second of our four-part serialisation of the report on Kayiira’s killing by the Metropolitan Police’s Criminal Investigation Department of the UK, which has been popularised as Scotland Yard, read about what the killers said, how Gombya says he escaped by jumping over an eight-foot wall with spikes on the top, with part of the money he had in the house, and how Kayiira got shot.
A Scene of murder.
24.The venue of the offence is a three bedroom detached house standing within a large plot of land with wire security fencing surrounding it. This fencing is also strengthened by bamboo cane. The height of the fence is seven feet.
25. The house itself is a one-storey type with balcony over the top of a garage attached to the side of the house. At the rear of the house is a building which is used for cooking and for servants to live.
26. A drive way leads from the house to a double door security entrance with the gate being eight feet in height with spikes on the top. It is this gate that Gombya states he climbed over to make his escape.
27. The house is owned by Mr and Mrs Katongole who live opposite and had the house built to rent. Mr Gombya was the first tenant of the property.
The scene. Upon opening his door the gunman
The scene. Upon opening his door the gunman fired two shots which went through Kayiira’s right side arm. LLUSTRATIONS BY IVAN SSENYONJO
28. The surrounding area is mainly bush country with plantations of banana and matooke which the local villagers cultivate to sell and eat. The villagers’ houses are mainly mud lined walled huts and they live together in small communes drawn together only by the local village chief and the elected Defence Resistance leader. These two latter persons are very important and it will be seen later having significant bearing on Dr Kayiira’s presence at the Gombya residence. The conditions for the villagers are very primitive. Running between the various villages and outside Gombya house is a small track which is overgrown and leads eventually to Gaba Road which in turn leads to Kampala which is about six miles away.
29. To give some perspective of the area the reporting officer made ‘house-to-house’ enquiries and in doing so had to walk or drive up to one mile away from the scene to ascertain information from possible witness.
Investigation
30.On the night of the murder as already stated, Gombya together with his wife and three other girls, were having a meal when they were attacked by a number of men with torches and guns, when they ran into the house and locked themselves in their respective bedrooms; Dr Kayiira and Mr Gombya each having separate rooms.
31. The suspects, some according to the occupants, were wearing combat trousers and in some cases shirts, shouted to the occupants to come out of the rooms. Also it is alleged that they asked where the doctor and the “UFM man” was and where the money was. This reference to money is significant as it is known that Gombya had obtained Shs50 million only a few days earlier, further that Dr Kayiira was present in Gombya’s office when the money was delivered in two separate amounts (Shs10 million on March 3 and Shs40 million shortly afterwards). At the current exchange rate of approximately Shs2,000 to the pound the value of that money is in the region of £25,000 (about Shs119m). This, however, must be looked at in the light of the unofficial exchange rate mainly used by the Ugandans which would reduce the value to about £2,500 (about Shs12 million).
32. The suspects, according to witnesses and a reconstruction of the scene, appear to have ordered the four girls out of the room they had been hiding in and after questioning them, they were locked in the bathrooms. They then fired a shot through the door of Gombya’s bedroom and kicked open the door to enter. Gombya had decamped.
33. According to Gombya, whilst the suspects were shouting at the girls and kicking his door, he panicked and split the money into two halves, threw Shs20 million in a box into the matooke plantation from the balcony leading from his room and left the remaining money in the bed for the suspects to steal. He then jumped from the balcony, at a height of 12 feet and ran down the driveway. He attempted to climb over the gate and then hid in a banana plantation until morning.
34. Whilst this was happening the suspects were shouting to Dr Kayiira to open his bedroom door, which he did, at the same time asking them what they wanted. Exactly what happened then will never be fully known, but from reconstruction it appears that upon opening his door the gunman fired two shots which went through Kayiira’s right side arm and then two shots went through his left side abdomen and passed out from the right side. Dr Kayiira died on the spot.
35. The suspects then ransacked the house and stole personal property including the large sum of money (about Shs20m), a tape recorder, a camera, radio cassette and video deck belonging to Mr Gombya. It is not known whether property from Dr Kayiira was stolen but it is thought that he had no property at the house.
36. Witnesses state that when Gombya escaped and was running towards the gates he was seen by one of the suspects who raised the alarm and was told not to pursue him as the “UFM” man is in the house. This would suggest that the suspects knew that Dr Kayiira was staying at the house and from previous questions to the occupants knew there was money in the house also.
37. Mr Gombya states that he hid in the banana plantation until about 6am in the morning when he returned to the house and discovered that his friend Dr Kayiira was dead. He also recovered the 20 million shillings that he had thrown into the matooke plantation.
38. Police were eventually notified at Kabalagala Police Post some two miles away and arrived shortly after 7:30am. A photographer and scenes of crime officer arrived soon after wards. Scenes of crime examination was always going to be difficult as prior to police arrival villagers and other persons from the surrounding areas had descended onto the property and went inside the house to satisfy their curiosity, and pay their respects.
39. The pathologist,Dr Kakande of Mulago hospital, examined the body and confirmed that the cause of death was due to multiple gunshot wounds. He did not attend the scene himself. He is very vague about the injuries and admits that he did not carry out a full post mortem examination but purely looked at the body and later allowed the relatives to bury the body. No clothes or blood samples were taken from the body which was buried on March 11 (1987) at Masulita, his village, about 30 miles from Kampala.
40. At the scene of the crime three bullets were found and a broken blood stained stick. In the matooke plantation next to the house was a cardboard box which contained the money left on the bed by Gombya and also found in the matooke plantation was a cream coloured jacket, a handbag belonging to Mrs Gombya containing correspondence. In the banana plantation/bush area, about 300 yards from the house, a black briefcase and a shoe to belonging to Gombya was found. Correspondence from these items were also found strewn around.
41. Investigations by the Kampala CID under, Mr Simon Mugamba and Senior superintendent Fidelis Ongom (officer in charge) commenced and quickly established that Gombya had requested from Mr Henry Katerega, a Kampala businessman, the sum of Shs50m very urgently. Further that Gombya has rang him several times to hurry the matter up.
Although this action could lend credence to the rumour that Gombya had received money from abroad on behalf of Dr Kayiira and may have misappropriated it and was now trying to recoup some of it, there is also the stronger notion that Gombya was involved in foreign exchange business deals with Katerega. This involved Gombya being paid his wages in a business firm of Katerega’s choice in London and subsequently Gombya being paid in Kampala in local currency. This has a ring of truth about it when it is considered that the local residents invariably carry out transactions on the unofficial money exchange which is up to 10 times that of the official rate.
Src: Daily Monitor
