Body of missing NGO staff kidnapped in Kampala found in Mukono

The body of Maria Nagirinya Gateni,a staff at Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI) a Non-Government Organisation that works in the Water and Sanitation sub-sector who has been missing since Wednesday has been found in Mukono district

Nagirinya was abducted on Wednesday evening at her rented residence in Lungujja, while she waited for her sister to open the gate and on Friday morning, her vehicle, a Toyota Spacio, registration number UBA570V was discovered in Nateete.

However, according to reports from Mukono, the body has been recovered dumped in a water channel at Nakitutuli village, Nama sub-county in Mukono district along the Mukono –Kayunga road alongside the one for another person identified as Ronald Kitayimbwa, a boda boda rider.

A friend who preferred anonymity because she is not authorized to comment on the matter confirmed the body was that of Nagirinya according to the dress she was putting on.

Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, Patrick Onyango, however, told this website that Kitayimbwa’s body had been positively identified.

“Kitayimbwa’s brother identified as Lubega has identified the body but we are waiting for Nagirinya’s relatives to help us identify whether the body is hers,”Onyango told this website.

Nagirinya went missing on Wednesday night as she returned home in Busega and according to an eyewitness who preferred anonymity, she had returned from work at around 11:00 pm when she was seized by certain men who threw her in the same car and drove off with her wailing.

“She reached the gate and by the time I opened, I saw two men in her car and she was shouting; ‘don’t take me…..help’, I was stuck and didn’t know what else to do,” the witness said.

The family reported a case of Kidnap under reference 04/29/08/2019.

According to Nagirinya’s father Anthony Lubowa, the family has not yet received any hope that their daughter is fine.

“The office of Kibuye Police told us that when they saw the vehicle in Kireka, it only had one man driving it and he was in a red coat. That means that they have dropped the girl somewhere or they have injured the girl in whatever form. I don’t really know.”

This is the second incident of Kidnap in Lungujja. In 2017, Suzan Magara, a 28-year-old cashier with Bwendero Dairy Farm (BDF) along Kabaka Anjagala road in Rubaga was reportedly kidnapped while driving to her home in Lungujja, Lubaga Division.

Her motor vehicle was found abandoned on the roadside after the kidnap.

Magara’s body was later found dumped in Kigo, along the Entebbe expressway.