On May 2nd, 2023, at around 9:30 a.m., Uganda was hit by disheartening news about the gruesome murder of late Col. (Rtd.) Charles Okello Engola Macodwogo, the junior Minister for Labour, Employment, and Industrial Relations, from his home, Kyanja, in Kampala, by his own bodyguard, identified as Pte. Sabiiti.
The Uganda People’s Defense Forces have since rubbished the claim that the killer bodyguard shot dead his principal due to delayed payment of his salary and alleged mismanagement of financial benefits.
Col. Deo Akiiki, the UPDF deputy spokesperson, said the soldier had been consistently receiving his salary on time; therefore, it’s not right to say he went suicidal and killed the minister due to payment.
“All our soldiers are paid on time.” “The late soldier got his salary in the bank last Friday, and he has been getting all other emoluments on time,” Col. Akiiki said.
According to Col. Akiiki, the UPDF is often paid on time and earlier than every other government institution.
“You know we are the ones paid before anybody else, and the system does not segregate. I have accessed even the payslips of this very soldier for the last year. No day did he miss a pay. He actually has other entitlements as an escort of the minister,” Col. Akiiki explained.
Other sources revealed that the killer soldier, after murdering the late Minister Engola, also went out into the nearby trading center to apparently look for his wife, Joyce, whom he thought had gone to the saloon.
“We first saw the driver speed off after the gunshots, so we grabbed Joyce and hid her inside the shop where she had come to access the mobile money service point, so this bodyguard continued straight to the saloon thinking she had gone there,” an eyewitness recalled.
A source within the Ministry of Gender Security Department, which is in charge of VVIP, revealed that the suicidal bodyguard was known for discipline behaviours.
Pte. Sabiiti was deployed to Col. Engola’s security team only a month ago after he had been sent away from Ft. Capt. Mukula’s detail because the team leader had detected acts of indiscipline in his conduct.
Sources close to ongoing investigations into the unprecedented killing of a principal by his own guard in Uganda indicated to the Monitor that Pte. Wilson Sabiiti had previously been deployed to guard two high-profile individuals.
Among the two was a military general (name withheld) reported to have worked under the army’s National Enterprise Corporation. He was also once assigned to the vice chairperson of the ruling National Resistance Movement (Eastern region), Flight Captain Mike Mukula.
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