Inside the “intricate” case of man suspected to have killed lover in accident; Museveni intervenes

Police detectives have re-arrested a man suspected to have killed his lover in a motor accident in a case that for over five years has had detectives scratch their heads to crack the puzzle.

In 2019, Doreen Namara died instantly in an accident that happened in Namugongo when a Toyota Vitz she was travelling in with his boyfriend, Richard Bwanika rammed into another vehicle, a Pajero registration number UG 1654W.

Whereas the family of the deceased insists there was malice in the death of their daughter, Police viewed it as a normal road accident and consequently not so much attention was put on it.

On the other side, Bwanika disappeared from the scene and since it had been treated as an accident, there were no efforts by police to trace for him.

Meanwhile, the family of the deceased took the matter to higher authorities prompting further investigations.

How it started

Bwanika and Namara studied together at Bishop Cyprian High School, Kyabakadde in Mukono district for their A-level and they later joined Makerere University where they studied as friends.

However, after campus, they took things a notch higher and expressed love for each other.

The two lovebirds later prepared to marry each other but this act was not approved of by the girl’s family.

Sources privy to the matter say that Namara’s mother warned her of ever marrying Bwanika but the two lovers continued seeing each other in secret.

To Bwanika, he thought with time, his lover’s mother would change her heart and bless their marriage but this never happened.

Fateful day

On the fateful day in November 2015, Namara left her parents’ home in Ntinda and went to visit her lover in Najeera where they had a good time together.

“At around 4pm, Namara told her lover that she felt she should go out and drink herself silly because of the stress she had. Bwanika accepted and granted the request,” the source who prefers to remain anonymous said.

At the bar, the deceased first took three bottles of V&A before later taking other beer brands.

At around midnight, the girl asked her boyfriend to return her to her parents’ home in Ntinda but as they say the rest is now history.

Accident, death

According to the family of the deceased, a few minutes after midnight, Bwanika called one of Namara’s brothers and asked him whether the family was ready for any bad news about their daughter.

“At 12:26am, he called Namara’s brother and asked him whether he was ready to receive any news about her. When the brother asked where Namara was, Bwanika responded that she was with him but that she was not emotionally fine,” the source says.

When asked to return Namara to her parents’ home, Bwanika said he was taking her for counselling sessions since she was not emotionally fine.

Six minutes later, Namara’s mother called and her phone was picked by a strange voice that informed her that the daughter was dead after being involved in an accident.

When the family demanded to have the body of their daughter, they directed to Life Link hospital in Namugongo where they picked it.

Looking at the accident vehicle, the passenger side where Namara was seated was the most affected.

 Family not satisfied

Despite being told that their daughter had died in an accident, the family insisted there was foul play in the death and demanded for further investigations.

They said they could not believe the narrative since the deceased’s body didn’t have any physical injury, save for a small scratch on the leg.

However, when a postmortem was done, it indicated that Namara had died of a blunt trauma which the family didn’t believe.

According to the Wikipedia, blunt trauma refers to injury of the body by forceful impact with a dull object.

With blunt force trauma, there can be internal organ injuries that are not immediately visible and common organs that are affected include the spleen, liver, and small intestines.

Meanwhile, Bwanika was charged with a traffic offence but was later released after evidence linking him to have maliciously killed Namara was nowhere to be seen.

However, according to the family, this was not satisfying and they suspected their daughter could have been killed prior to the accident that they claimed was stage managed.

Amidst all this, Bwanika disappeared and neither the deceased’s family or police could get hold of him.

Museveni intervenes

After realizing there was no headway for the case at police, the deceased’s family sought redress of higher authorities and consequently, they reached out to President Museveni.

Consequently, the president wrote to Police to review the case prompting fresh investigations.

Early this week, Bwanika was arrested and interrogated afresh for his side of the story.

When asked whether he took Namara to the councilor as he had told the deceased’s brother on phone, he said he never did it.

He told detectives that he was only creating a scenario to ensure he spends a night with Namara .

Bwanika also claims that the occupants of the other vehicle that rammed into his planted beer bottles into his car.

On Thursday, Bwanika was arraigned before the magistrate’s court in Kira and charged with offences related to reckless driving, causing death by reckless driving and causing bodily injury by reckless driving contrary to section 110(c),108(a) and 108(1) of the Road Safety Act 1998 respectively.

Grade one magistrate, Benson Ssemondo later remanded him to Kitalya government prison until November 4, 2021.

Puzzle

With the insistence of the deceased’s family that Bwanika intended to kill their daughter and the president’s directive to revisit the investigations, detectives are still puzzled since there is no direct evidence to link him to the murder of his girlfriend.

Detectives privy to the investigations say before the incident, Bwanika had posted on his social media accounts blaming Namara’s mother for not allowing him marry the love of his life.

“Bwanika posted saying Namara’s mother was a tribalist who didn’t want a Muganda marry her daughter who was not a Muganda. He also posted asking Namara’s mother to send him a photo of her girlfriend in the coffin,” a detective privy to the investigation told the Nile Post.

According to the Criminal Investigations Division spokesperson, Charles Twiine, the matter was first reported as a traffic accident and was investigated as such.

“It was investigated as a traffic accident that led to the death of one person and our officers investigated a traffic case. The parents of the deceased came and gave their own version of events before the accident,” Twiine said.

Twiine said that after hearing from the parents’ side, the file was called from Kira division to CID headquarters for further analysis and consequently detectives started investigating murder.

He however noted that investigations are still ongoing, it is still hard to find evidence since a long time has passed since the incident and that earlier investigators had taken it as a simple traffic accident.

“We have tried to follow leads to link the incident to murder but nothing is yet forthcoming. We have discussed the file with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on what to do. For now, the suspect has been slapped with traffic charges as holding charges.”

Twiine insists that on interrogation, Bwanika’s side of the story too could not help investigators come to a conclusion that the incident was murder.

“We shall try to exhaust investigations to throw out any doubt. A lot needs to be examined on what happened before the accident. The words said by Bwanika on his social media try to point to something but you cant charge him with murder without any evidence,”Twiine said.

Such intricate cases point to the fact that more is needed in regards training of detectives to ably and exhaustively investigate cases not to leave any doubt.

For example, if the earlier investigators looked into the line of murder as claimed by the deceased’s parents, either some evidence could have been got to pin Bwanika or the case would have been thrown away for lack of evidence and Namara’s family could have got satisfied .