By Wafula Malik
The latest update coming from the turbulent town of Arua is that police has so far refused to release the body of Yasin Kawuma, the slain Bobi Wine driver who was shot dead by security forces during the election-related chaos that engulfed Arua town Monday evening. According to the deceased’s personal friend and fellow Kitezi leader Nkunyingi Muwadda, who is also legally advising the family through the current situation, a group of distraught family members (mostly the late’s brothers) and Lusambya/Kiteezi village leaders who travelled to Arua last night are stranded at the Arua Police station following police refusal to permit them carry the body away. “The body is in the mortuary but because it was taken there by police, the hospital authorities need permission and clearance of police to give it away and the colleagues on the ground say police have so far not cooperated. And as Muslims this is angering us because we want to pray for our brother at our Kiteezi masque and immediately bury him in accordance with the Islamic traditions and practices,” Nkunyingi Muwadda told this news website in a phone interview a short while ago. “The community here is already angry and this can only ferment more anger because why would you delay releasing the body of somebody who died in circumstances that are well known and haven’t been disputed?”
KAWUMA PROFILE;
We have gathered a few facts giving a hint into who Kawuma was. Firstly, even when he personally grew up in Kiteezi along with his brothers who do some informal errands just like him, Kawuma hails from greater Mpigi district where there is his ancestry. Its still unclear whether he will be buried in Kiteezi or Mpigi side. He is survived by a wife and a daughter. He was always very political and hailed from a DP background. He was modestly educated and previously managed FDC-leaning Nkunyingi Muwadda’s campaigns for Kyadondo East MP Seat and Semujju Nganda earlier on.
Being a full time political activist, he wielded a lot of influence on the community in Kiteezi. He was politically neutral or indifferent towards Col Kizza Besigye, a prominent neighbor of Kiteezi. Besigye’s Kasangati/Kyankima village is some kilometers away from Kiteezi. Kawuma gradually became lukewarm and indifferent towards KB when his mentor Tonny Sempebwa, the Nangabo LC3 chairman, felt betrayed in 2016 when Besigye’s FDC put a candidate against his reelection yet he had always been arrested in the trenches with KB during the walk to work protests. Mulengera news website understands that Kawuma ceased his support for Muwadda in 2017 when Bobi Wine (a fellow DP) came to the race for Kyadondo East MP seat during the post-Apollo Kantinti by election. More recently Kawuma stood for Lusambya LC1 Chairmanship but a one Kibuka of the NRM emerged winner. Kawuma, understood to have been in his early 30s, moved on. Like many struggling fellow DPs, Kawuma did various odd jobs to make ends meet. Family sources tell Mulengera news website that, because of the rampant unemployment in Uganda, Kawuma never specialized for any job. He did a number of them depending on what was lucratively available at a given time. He was variously a wielder, a Boda rider, a taxi driver, long distance truck driver and also a broker aiding those looking for land to buy or even houses to rent in the Kiteezi neighborhood.
In the Kyadondo East by election, he volunteered to drive candidate Bobi Wine free of charge. Bobi had a number of vehicles on his entourage and Kawuma tackled any that was available for campaign-related errands. He was uniquely good for long distances upcountry, an attribute the ever travelling Bobi Wine loved in him. “He wasn’t expensive for Bobi because, being a political activist himself, Kawuma passionately loved what he was doing,” says an acquaintance. While mourning Kawuma’s passing, Sheikh Akram Sonko Katungulu (who is the Imam for the Kiteezi mosque where the deceased was an active worshiper) has called upon the Kiteezi community to be calm and not resort to rioting to show their resentment towards those who killed their relative, leader and friend. For comments, reach us on 0703164755.
