In the shadows of Uganda's criminal justice system and political deception, a father's desperate search for truth and accountability for the murder of his 4-year-old daughter has become a fight for survival.
The Stamp of Death is a story of Naphatali Asiimwe and his family, whose daughter, Elizabeth Kembabazi, affectionately known as "Dota," was brutally murdered in Kanyogoga Village, sparking a wave of protests and demands for justice, leaving the whole community in despair.
One morning in April 2024, NBS Investigates was met with a scuffle at the gates of Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court in Kampala as a section of Kanyogoga Village residents pursued what they perceived as an injustice.
It was a show of solidarity for a family disentangled by village politics.
From whispers and despair to outright protests, it is largely believed that justice has been elusive for years, with some community members feeling that the law has not taken its full course since November 2020, when one of the residents lost his daughter to murder.
From the exchanging voices at the court premises, one name kept coming up: Yasin Omar — the powerful Local Council II chairperson for Bukasa Parish in Makindye Division, where Kanyogoga Village is found.
Kanyogoga, a vibrant yet unforgiving patchwork of poverty and resilience, stands as a testament to the unyielding spirit of Kampala's urban poor, where hope and hardship entwine like the narrow alleys that crisscross this bustling settlement.
Here, in the shackles of hopelessness, Yasin Omar is perceived to be powerful and unforgivingly influential. Perhaps he would have remained a local figure with little or no media attention if the innocent soul of 4-year-old Elizabeth Kembabazi had not been lost in what is seen as a struggle for village authority.
Deception, Power and Influence
The Stamp of Death is a story that dates back to November 11, 2020. On this fateful day, 4-year-old Elizabeth Kembabazi, commonly known as “Dota,” was gruesomely raped and strangled by unknown assailants.
Her parents, Naphatali Asiimwe and Judith Kobusingye Asiimwe, describe the murder as a “political sacrifice.” Her mother told NBS Investigates, “When I saw it (her body), I fainted…”
Dota was killed in cold blood just two days before her fourth birthday. The killers are suspected to be political rivals of Mr Asiimwe.
Ms Asiimwe insists that she died because of the politics for LC Kanyogoga. She vividly recalls their rivals creating a narrative that the late’s father “sacrificed the daughter… that my husband wanted the chairmanship.”
To her, this was particularly painful.
“She died with a lot of pain, very young, four years, neck twisted, knifed, and raped,” one of the women leaders in the village told this reporter.
Mr Asiimwe has served as vice chairperson of Kanyogoga Village in Bukasa since 2004, under the chairmanship of Emmanuel Masengere, and one Sande Masengere, his son, as the Local Council Secretary.
But knit structure fell apart when Emmanuel Masengere, the chairman, passed on during the COVID-19 lockdown. Mr Asiimwe told NBS that when “our chairman passed on, his son (Sande Masengere) picked interest in taking over his father’s leadership forcefully and unlawfully.”
Mr Asiimwe claims that Masengere gathered his team, and what he calls the “wrangle” started from there.
The Wrangle Drags
We scrutinised a trove of documents that highlighted several complaints from Mr Asiimwe against Sande Masengere, stating his misuse of the Kanyogoga Zone LC Village stamp.
In one of the letters to the City Division authorities, Mr Asiimwe highlighted that “The stamp is being used by non-committee members in the office of Kanyogoga, and this includes the family members and close friends, thus leading to insecurities in the village.”
This political battle created different factions in the leadership of the village: the Pro-Asiimwe and Pro-Sande groups, fuelling tension that built up day by day. Many people in the village can relate to these unfortunate incidents.
“If they see you talking to Mr Asiimwe, you’re an enemy,” one of the residents revealed, adding, “When we found the body, everybody’s suspicions ran to them — Sande, Sande…” the resident recalls.
Sande Masengere was one of the key suspects in the killing of Kembabazi. Amidst this grief, Sande did something suspicious and unbelievable to the already suspecting people of Kanyogoga.
“After the death of our daughter, we had to take the body and bury in our home district in Kamwenge, so our chairman LC II (Yasin Omar) called a meeting with the suspects and had a discussion, and one of them handed himself to police,” Mr Asiimwe remarked.
Sande allegedly handed himself to Kabalagala Police Station for safe custody. But Mr Asiimwe’s list of people he openly suspected to have had a hand in the murder of his 4-year-old daughter extended beyond Sande.
“Among the suspects, Sande Masengere is available, Yasin Omar is available, Richard Iragena…” he said.
Justice for Kembabazi
The long list of suspects introduces us to the long walk for justice for Elizabeth Kembabazi. Five years after her death, no main suspect has been apprehended, and no conclusive investigations have been conducted.
Midway through the hunt for justice, the barrel turned against the already grieving family. In a painful journey of seeking justice that has become a hunt in the wild, Mr Asiimwe became the target of what he calls persecution.
He decries the fact that “none of them (the suspects) was arrested, apart from the one who took himself to police. They are now harassing me and my family. Yet when I went back to Kabalagala (Police) for statements, I found the file wasn’t there,” Mr Asiimwe lamented.
According to the family, the case file for Elizabeth Kembabazi’s death went missing from Kabalagala Police Station. Apparently, officers at the station had received different instructions from what is commonly perceived as the “above.”
The file was moved to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit. But why? This is a murder case.
“When I asked who brought this file and what was the cause, they told me one of the chairmen complained, and I asked who that was, they told me Yasin Omar…” Mr Asiimwe claims.
Yasin Omar, the powerful LC II chairperson, returns to the conversation again. For the grieving Mr Asiimwes, there are only questions about Mr Omar’s interest or lack thereof in the case of their daughter’s murder.
Mr Asiimwe successfully followed up the file at the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and made his case clear to them. It was then returned to Kabalagala Police Station, only to gather dust.
“It’s never been in court (the file). It’s stuck at Kibuli (CIID). It’s only the libel file making progress,” Mr Asiimwe’s wife, Judith Kobusingye, explained.
Since then, officers at the Police Directorate of Criminal Investigation in Kibuli have not made any major developments in their investigations into the murder of Elizabeth Kembabazi.
Where Is the Police’s Attention?
Case file GEF: 278/2021, which is a case of offensive communication against Mr Asiimwe and his wife, became the pinch point against the Asiimwes. Yasin Omar is offended by Mr Asiimwe and is seeking legal redress in court.
The case of libel that Mr Omar filed against the Asiimwes is a result of frustrations over the delayed justice for their daughter. Having knocked on every door for justice in vain, Mr Asiimwe turned to both mainstream and social media to share his frustrations.
In the process, they recorded a video asking for help, in which they mentioned people they suspected to have a hand in the delay of attaining justice for their late daughter.
“I was using social media to get justice. When you listen to the video, there are even people mentioned who could help me from bigger offices. The intention wasn’t maligning anybody’s name…” Mr Asiimwe said.
But whatever intentions he harboured did not sit well with Yasin Omar. He had to stamp his feet against libel, accusing the Asiimwes of defamation.
Mr Omar immediately furthered the matter to court. In Civil Suit No. 300 of 2021, Yasin Omari vs. Napthali Asiimwe, Judith Asiimwe and Geoffrey Ssemata, Omar seeks “general damages for libel contained in audio and video messages published on a WhatsApp group of Bukasa Residents and on WhatsApp, YouTube and social media channels, generally alleging that the defendant, among others, murdered their child for political, cultural, religious and social reasons, all of which are maliciously false,” the suit reads in part.
During one of the court proceedings, Mr Omar told NBS, the original publisher of the investigation, that the accused had overindulged his name.
“They involved me in a matter that I am not connected with. Police investigated — I am not involved at all. There’s a case of a child and my name was mentioned.”
At this point, the grieving father, Naphatali Asiimwe, had “messed” with “a wrong person,” Yasin Omar.
In his brief interview with NBS at Buganda Road Court, Mr Omar treated any question relating to the murder of Kembabazi with contempt, insisting that he was in court for “libel,” not any other case. He would dodge.
Meanwhile, he stretched his influence, and several summonses were issued to Mr Asiimwe and Kanyogoga Village committee members, throwing a section of the village into despair.
“Everybody is being harassed because of my daughter,” Mr Asiimwe said.
Kanyogoga residents allege that Yasin Omar has compromised police officers at Kabalagala Police Station and that they take his instructions at will. One of the embattled residents, Geoffrey Ssemata, told NBS that, “Yasin deceived these people that he talks with the president. Because the President gave him a medal, now he uses the medal to intimidate authorities, that he talks with the President direct.”
Mr Omar’s show of medals was evident in almost all court sessions we attended.
“I lost my daughter. What do these people really want from me? Let me first put myself aside and see what’s next. Judge issued a warrant of arrest — I am confused,” Mr Asiimwe grumbled at his hideout in Kampala.
For Ssemata, another embattled Kanyogoga resident, it was clear that “police are working hand-in-hand with the suspects in the village, looking for the father and mother of the murdered daughter.”
For five months, he stayed away from his grieving wife and children, including an infant.
“My biggest fear is that in this I can easily be killed because the people I am dealing with are mafias. There’s a way he uses courts to squeeze others — I can even lose my life,” Mr Asiimwe said.
In one of the interviews, NBS Investigates managed to arrange a safe place for Asiimwe’s family and friends to reunite after months of being away from home. It was an emotionally joyful moment, albeit amid a troublesome hunt by the law.
But it was a point of reflection for Mr Asiimwe on his next steps. He made a decision to face all the charges against him, and this is when our journey into the details of his besieged life was underlined.
Asiimwe Facing the Law
In a door-step kind of journalism, NBS Investigates kept an eye on Asiimwe and his wife from their bustling settlement in Kanyogoga’s slums of Namuwongo throughout their court sessions.
“I have decided to take myself to court…” Asiimwe says as he jumps off the boda-boda to the surprise of a section of residents.
He had been in hiding for months, and some people greeted him in disbelief.
From Kanyogoga to Buganda Road Court in Kampala on that surrender day, Mr Asiimwe had little or no hope for an easy moment in court. With a group of friends and well-wishers, all donned in “Justice for Kembabazi” T-shirts, the court was filled with people standing in solidarity with a family seen as tormented.
That day in April 2024, in the dock was Naphatali Asiimwe, his wife Judith Kobusingye, and their infant. Although he took himself to court, Mr Asiimwe was detained, and the wife granted a non-cash bail.
It was literally a lone walk for her back home with her baby.
On several occasions, the accused were before Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayizzi, and each session presented unique instances. At one point, after an adjournment, people believed to be police detectives in plain clothes were among those at court, with the intention of arresting some locals alleged to be on Yasin Omar’s wanted list.
A fracas ensued, and the target of the day, one Kato, escaped by a whisker, as the disruption at court foiled the perceived mission.
For almost a month, Mr Asiimwe was continuously denied bail and kept in prison. In one of the sessions, drama surfaced when “someone picked money in my name — please take it back.”
Chief Magistrate Kayizzi banged his table, loud enough for the court to hear. He adjourned briefly and instructed counsel to make sure the money was returned to the accused’s side.
Mr Kayizzi insisted that someone from the Asiimwe and co-accused side had been cheated money on the judge’s behalf. It was important that he called it out.
Claims of corruption and compromise of judicial officers and police officers have been loud throughout the course of this investigation. But at this moment, it came from the direction of the accused.
For the then Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango, it was unbelievable that “they can compromise everyone,” he said as he dismissed Asiimwe’s constant claim that “Yasin Omar is above the law,” a claim that echoes throughout Kanyogoga Village.
As Ssemata emphasized, “We don’t even believe the Prime Minister can manage him. He (Yasin) can order ‘go and detain this person,’ they come for you, and then find a case to put on you.”
Mr Asiimwe would later be released on bail and returned to Kanyogoga, frightened but hopeful. Months later, the Police have no major development to inquire into the grisly murder of Elizabeth Kembabazi, ‘Dota,’ and no suspect on Asiimwe’s list is charged.
Mr Onyango, the then KMP Police spokesperson, explained that “the State Attorney’s legal advice” was the determining factor for the release of the main suspect due to “lack of evidence to directly link him” to the murder of Kembabazi.
NBS Investigates reached out to both Sande Masengere and Yasin Omar. They both declined to give a final comment on the matter.
Neither did the DPP elaborate on the course of their investigations in this particular case.
The writer, Paul Kayonga, is a member of the NBS Editorial Committee and a contributor to NBS Investigates.