I saw the man who took my sister, and I am scared for my life-  Family witness

The younger sister to slain Maria Nagirinya Gateni, a staff at Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI) a Non-Government Organisation, who was kidnapped and later murdered by unknown people, has said she fears for her life as well.

Bernadette Nakidde, who came face to face with her sister’s abductors on the fateful night, says she and one of the men who took Nagirinya stared at each other in a moment as she struggled to intercept them.

According to Nakidde, when her sister called for the gate to be opened, she came out only to find the car, a Toyota Spacio UBA570V, reversing with Nagirinya screaming her lungs out: “temuntwala, temuntwala’ (Do not take me).

“They didn’t expect the gate to be opened when it was. They started reversing very fast. I was there banging the car’s bonnet while I screamed for help but no one was coming to our rescue. They reversed quickly,” a teary Nakidde narrates.

“There was a man who was wearing a red jacket and white shirt, he had big eyes and some beards. I looked at him and he also looked at me. I am not sure he kept my face, I don’t know how safe I am. I am so scared of my life.”

Nagirinya was snatched from outside her residence while she waited for Nakidde to open the gate. Police earlier maintained that they had spotted her car around Kireka, being driven by a man in a red jacket but later vanished off the CCTV grid.

Nagirinya’s car would later be recovered from Nateete where it had been dumped for over 24 hours, before her body and that of her driver Ronald Kitayimbwa were retrieved from a swamp in Mukono.

Speaking during her burial over the weekend, the family vowed not to rest the matter until the culprits are apprehended.

Dr. Ben Mukwaya, the uncle to the deceased, criticized police for their slow investigations and failure to protect their daughter and vowed not to give up the fight until their daughter get justice.

“I saw the level of incompetence, detachment, lack of empathy, lack of professionalism in the way the security agencies were handling the issues of Maria. We shall not rest until we get justice, Maria is not Suzan Magara or Muhammad Kirumira,” he said.

Father Pius Male the Chancellor of Kampala Diocese who led the requiem mass condemned the rampant murders in the country.

“I wonder if those killers are really human beings like us and by the way those who killed her where do they live?” he asked.

Nagirinya’s sister Bena Nakyejwe narrated her ordeal on the fateful Wednesday night when Maria was kidnapped and later killed by the perpetrators.

“I heard her while at the back seat of the car, pleading and screaming for mercy. Please don’t take me that is when I got scared and started shivering,” she narrated.

Nagirinya’s father revealed that he had received a phone call from President Museveni assuring him of thorough investigations into the matter.

Nagirinya’s Body was laid to rest at Kibuye a Kampala suburb in Makindye division after a requiem mass at St Peter’s Catholic Church Nsambya