Opinion: Lessons from the fatal Naalya shooting of businessman Mugisha

The shooting death of Arnold Ainebyona Mugisha at Quality Supermarket in Naaalya has left me in deep pain and it that sort of pain that knows no proportions and it not logical. 

I have failed to understand everything connected to Mugisha’s death on Tuesday, July 9, 2019. How could we lose a young entrepreneur aged just 25 and that shooter is 31! These are very young people. 

I was 25 years old 20 years ago, just like Mugisha and his shooter, so young and full of life. I was nowhere near as successful as Mugisha appeared to be with a thriving restaurant business in exclusive Kololo.

So this is not your average 25 year old. And they don’t come that way every other day. We are a nation that is divided and has a problem we must confront and that is the very reason I have suspended mourning and whining and come to place this in black and white. 

I was sent to do NBS TV Morning Breeze work at the scene of crime in Naalya this morning and I deliberately determined to find an eye witness that saw everything as it unfolded and what I heard left me asking questions. 

Before we get to those questions let me leave here a conclusion that I have made that left me mourning the dead man even more. First is that this argument should never have ended the way it did: a promising young man’s life cut short. 

The information I have is that Mugisha and friends had just concluded shopping in the mall and were about to leave when a trolley they were using rolled away and crashed into a parked car. 

The young men were requested to wait for the vehicle owner so that they have a conversation about the car and its so called “damage” or dent if you like. 

I am told they left their vehicle and assessed what was perceived as “a damage” to the other parked car and in their opinion there was nothing worth waiting for and they made their way for their car ready to leave . 

The security guard who had alerted them to the damage protested and here I say he was right at that point and I shall explain why. I am not saying he should have shot anyone, don’t accuse me of that yet. 

If you have ever parked a vehicle anywhere where there are security people and you found it dented and no one in sight to explain what happened, you know what that feels like. 

You know how you can have a go at these men asking them what their use is if all they do is just watch as your car is knocked and they let the errant driver off too lightly? 

If you were not too nice, you may even have accused them of having “eaten” from the “knocker” so that they keep quiet. 

These guards are often in a tough spot. Many have lived through situations where they have been reported to their bosses and lost their jobs on the spot. Especially if the victim of the dent is known to the boss personally. Is this not a country of important people after all?

Now given all that I see why the young man wanted the knocker to stay and resolve the matter and he was absolutely right.

Now let me ask the questions I have no answer for.

When did it become the right of he who has knocked my car  to assess the damage and decide that it is a small dent and there is nothing I should be making a fuss about? Wait a minute, the car is mine, you knocked it! Is it not plain simple courtesy to allow me the car owner to decide whether the matter is huge or small? Had these young people known why it is important to wait for those they wronged to settle matter, may be we would not be here. They did not see that.

Whose responsibility is it to teach a 25 years old business owner these small simple things? Does our education benefit us if these things are not found there? 

I have heard often young people say after a car has been scratched and you hear “Mzee ako nawe katono tewelaga nyo.”  Translated this means the dent is so inconsequential, there is no need to show off by making a fuss over it.

It might be small to you but not to me and the power dynamics are that I own the car and it is I that has been aggrieved so I should be in the position of power not you!

In the way I was raised, waiting for the owner for even a day was always an imperative or where there is a hurry, leave a business card and an instruction with the security guards that the owner should call you to sort the matter amicably. 

Why are we not that way at 25 anymore? 

I’m increasingly seeing things we have lost and yesterday we lost a young man full of promise sadly.

In pain, I have resolved after a conversation with a friend that we must teach our children humility, meekness and value for lives and property of others. 

Why would you kill a man because he dented a car? Is this the last death of such circumstances? I am not sure because parenting has since changed and changed so much. We are a nation on the brink and you don’t want to be picking the wrong fight. Be humble and meek, it may be all you need to be alive.