A joint security team has again quizzed the husband of social worker Maria Nagirinya to help them with investigations into her murder.
Edgar Gateni was questioned for the second time sometime last week, according to his brother, Jessy Gateni.
“After the burial, security picked him for questioning, but last week they picked him again for further questioning,” Jessy said.
Security sources intimated to us that they decided to interrogate Gateni for the second time having realised that there were some gaps in his first statement.
Besides trying to find out whether she (Nagirinya) had ever complained to him of any threat on her life, the investigators also sought to find out “whether he (Gateni) knew Ronald Kitayimbwa, the purported driver who was murdered together with Nagiriya”.
According to New Vision the investigating team last Thursday released the female suspect who had been arrested from Kireka in Kira Municipality, Wakiso district in connection with the murder.
Fortunate Mugisha Ayebare, a cashier at Top Bet, was arrested by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence near Shell Kireka petrol station, where she had gone to have lunch with her friend, Brenda Akatukunda. At first, Ayebare’s relative, Lawrence Amanya Mushega, had reported a case of her disappearance at Kireka Police Station.
It was then revealed by the Kampala deputy Police spokesperson, ASP Luke Owoyesigyire, that CMI was holding her. Her release was confirmed by one of her relatives, Ronald Ainomugisha.
We also learned late last week that, among other things, investigations into the murder of Nagirinya had also extended to her relationship with Kitayimbwa.
The duo was kidnapped from her home in Lungujja-Busega, and days later their bodies were found dumped along the Mukono- Kayunga road in Mukono district. This was after one of the suspects in custody, during interrogation, reportedly purported that Nagirinya was murdered ostensibly because she was in a love relationship with her on-call driver, Kitayimbwa.
Nagirinya’s husband was out of the country in the United Arab Emirates. According to Police investigations, the relationship between Nagirinya and some of her in-laws was also not harmonious. Kitayimbwa had a wife with children, including a set of twins.
He also operated as a bodaboda in Nalumunye. Investigations are also looking at the possibility that the murder was linked to her workplace, where she had risen rapidly to a senior position.
According to the Police, the killers of Nagirinya and Kitayimbwa were hired hitmen linked to hardcore criminals known in security circles as B13, largely operating from Nateete, a Kampala suburb. One of the suspects in custody allegedly confessed to the crime and claimed that the gang was paid sh1.5m to execute the murder and that his share was only sh130,000. However, the killers also withdrew sh32,000 from Kitayimbwa’s mobile money account and another sh270,000 from Nagirinya’s after killing them.
These transactions partly helped security agencies to track the suspects and round them up. According to the Police, six suspects linked to the double murder are in custody. Three of the suspects have been identified as Hussain alias Arsenal; Hassan Kisekka and Johnson Lubega.
Lubega was on Thursday taken to the KCCA Magistrates’ Court to record an extra-judicial statement. But this aborted because it was late and the magistrate reportedly objected to the fact that the suspect did not appear to be in good condition.