By Ben Musanje
The Minister for Public Service Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala this week told the High Court how he survived a deadly assassination attempt in 2021 in which his daughter, Brenda Nantongo Wamala, and his driver, Sgt. Haruna Kayondo, were shot dead.
Giving emotional testimony before the International Crimes Division of the High Court on Monday, August 3, 2026, Katumba described how gunmen opened fire on his vehicle as he travelled along Kisota Road in Kampala.
Katumba told the four-member panel of judges that he had left his home in Bulabira that morning with his daughter, driver and bodyguard.
They were travelling to Najjanankumbi to make preparations for the burial of his mother-in-law.
The group was using Katumba’s official Toyota Land Cruiser V8, registration number H4DF 2138, while his head of security, Warrant Officer One Badru Mutyaba, followed in a pickup truck.
According to Katumba, the convoy briefly stopped at Kulambiro to buy newspapers before Mutyaba branched off towards the Northern Bypass to replace tyres on his vehicle.
The former Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) said nothing appeared unusual as they continued their journey.
However, shortly after joining Kisota Road, the situation suddenly changed.
“There were a number of humps, but on the first hump, shots started ringing out,” Katumba told court.
Initially, he said, he did not realize that the sounds were gunshots.
“I thought maybe they were the Boda Boda crashing into our vehicles,” he said.
He soon realized, however, that the attackers were firing from behind and from the right side of the vehicle.
The former Minister of Works and Transport was seated on the left side of the vehicle with his bodyguard, while Kayondo was driving on the right, with Brenda Nantongo seated behind him.
When the bullets struck the vehicle, Nantongo was the first to be hit.
Katumba recalled hearing his daughter cry out, “Jesus!” before she fell onto his lap, bleeding.
The attack also struck Kayondo, causing the vehicle to stop and lean against a perimeter wall.
Katumba said he realized something was wrong when he saw the driver’s head drop and the vehicle stopped moving.
By then, he had also been shot in his right hand.
He immediately instructed his bodyguard, then Sgt Khalid Kuboit, to take his rifle and engage the attackers.
As Kuboit attempted to get out of the vehicle, Katumba also tried to escape from the vehicle.
But another bullet struck his left hand, leaving it “fully shattered,” he told court.
Despite his injuries, Katumba managed to squeeze out of the vehicle and roll towards the rear tyre, using the vehicle as cover.
He and Kuboit lay behind the vehicle as the attackers attempted to return to the scene.
Katumba said they could see one of the assailants through the space underneath the vehicle.
He instructed his bodyguard to engage the attacker.
After several shots, the assailant reportedly sped away on a boda boda towards the junction connecting Kisota and Kisaasi roads.
Kuboit then told Katumba that they could not remain at the scene.
Because of his injuries, Katumba was unable to walk properly and was assisted away from the road.
The two eventually found an abandoned poultry house where Katumba was told to take cover while his bodyguard returned to the vehicle to secure the scene.
Katumba told court that, while inside the structure, he began breathing heavily and became frightened that he might die.
“I got scared that I would breathe to death,” he said.
After the shooting stopped, he followed his bodyguard back to the scene.
Five years later
Katumba’s testimony came as the prosecution nears the close of its case against suspects facing charges arising from the June 1, 2021 attack.
The accused are Muhammad Kagugube, Sirimani Kisambira, Abdullah Aziz Ramadhan, Dunka, Kamada Walusimbi, Habib Ramadhan Marjan and Huzaifah Wampa, who have been on remand at Luzira Prison since 2021.
They face charges including terrorism, murder and aggravated robbery.
The attack left Katumba and his bodyguard with gunshot injuries, while Brenda and Sgt Kayondo died at the scene.
Kuboit, who was then a sergeant, has since been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces.
As Katumba recounted the attack before court five years later, the testimony offered a detailed account of the brief but devastating sequence of events that transformed a routine family journey into a deadly ambush.
For Katumba, the memory remains inseparable from the last moments of his daughter’s life — a single cry of “Jesus!” before she fell into her father’s arms. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
