The Akena-Kanyamunyu Murder Has Exposed The Genocidal Time-bomb Ticking Among Ugandans

The Akena-Kanyamunyu Murder Has Exposed The Genocidal Time-bomb Ticking Among Ugandans 

Its now exactly a week since a one Mathew Kanyamunyu shot the fatal bullets that claimed social worker Akena Wakmot's life. By now mmost of you have read and heard so many versions about this Lugogo shooting.

But you must have noticed that one constant about the so many versions about this murder case is the triablization of the whole saga.

 

Most of the theories advanced about this Bugolobi murder case is that of highly connected Banyankole exercising impunity on weak Ugandans.  

But let’s try to do some critical thinking. Of course there is some form concealed sectarianism in the country that is making Ugandans to become very jittery about the state of affairs in the country. That is a fact that cannot eb denied by any honest person.

And this sectarianism is the reason why many people are ethnisizing and tribalizing ever single issue that happens in the country. But its better that we address issues on their own merit.

The pertinent question is; was the Lugogo murder premeditated or ethnically motivated?

The answer to that question shapes the whole debate about the Lugogo murder, the ethnic undertones notwithstanding.

The Hypothetical Version Of Events

I know that it’s wrong to make graphical comments about a case that is before case. But i find it imperative to sub-judice this case because of the impact it has had on the country so far.

Some of us learnt a lot from German detective, inspector Derrick a  who used to investigate murder cases.

If you reconstruct the whole murder scene, which has reportedly not been sealed as required by the process of crime investigations, you get the whole sense of what happened on that day.  

One thing that we need to agree with is to look at the possible reason why Mathew Kanyamunyu hastily shot Akena.

It’s a fact that Mathew and his girlfriend Cynthia Munwangari had premeditated fears for their lives prompted by the nature of the politics from her mother country of Burundi. 

Cynthia's mother Hon. Hafsa Mossi who was an MP in the East African parliament was recently gunned down in Burundi.

There are reports that Cynthia munwangari’s mother Hon. Hafsa Mossi who was an MP in the East African parliament was recently gunned down in Burundi. Obviously one can see that Cynthia had fears of her own and had to move with a person who would provide protection for her. That partly forms the reason why she moved with Mathew who had a cocked gun in the dashboard of the car, all the time. 

 

Cynthia Munwangari was in company of Kanyamunyu

I tend to think that when Akena accidentally knocked the car from the back, Cynthia might have (out of panic) told him (Mathew) that the assassins had come for her.  That Akena hastily ran to Mathew’s car, made Cynthia and Mathew more suspicious of his motives.

Mathew then had to instinctively react in fear and shot Akena in the stomach mistaking him for an assassin who had attacked Cynthia, like they had done her mother Hon Mosi.  When you look at the video you see a volley of bullets aimed directly at the deceased. 

And after the erratic shooting, you get the feeling that Mathew came to his senses and realized that Akena was not an enemy trying to assassinate his girlfriend afterall, but an unfortunate driver who knocked his car accidentally and got to his window to straighten matters with him.

So he (Mathew) endeavors to take the innocent Akena to hospital. And that is when all hell breaks loose. If Mathew had premeditated intentions to kill, he wouldn’t have taken the deceased to hospital.

He would have driven off and nobody would have known much of what transpired.  

I like to think the inspector Derrick way that it was a case of mistaken identity-where Mathew panicked and mistook Akena for an assassin.

Complication of matters 

What is disturbing is that Mathew seems to be trying to conceal the actual reasons that motivated him to shoot Akena.

Instead of talking the truth, he has gotten rid of the killer gun and is now trying to cook up new versions that will bail him out of the murder case.

I also highly doubt that Mathew shot Akena because he had scratched his car. I also doubt that Mathew, the connected Munyankole had tribal sentiments of shooting Akena, the Acholi.

There are practical possibilities that the shooting was clearly a case of mistaken identity.  

Genocidal Tendencies

Now that I have sub-judiced the case, let’s look at the national implications of this case.

As stated earlier, there is a growing concern about the rate of sectarianism in the country because of one group of people from the same region dominating everything.

Ugandans are increasingly getting jittery and adopting genocidal ideas.

There is a list of top police force officials which has been published on social media platforms which shows 95% of senior positions held by people from one region of western Uganda.  and this applies to most of the government bodies around the country.

There is a general consensus that the national cake has been hijacked to benefit people from the same region. 

And this alone is making it difficult for people to analyze issues objectively. They now observe issues with tribal lenses because of the practical injustice they are enduring at the moment.

This is putting the ‘favored people’ in danger. During the kayunga riots, there was a sample of the genocidal tendencies when the rioters deliberately targeted people from western Uganda for lynching.

During the campaigns for the 2016 elections, I moved with a friend from western Uganda and encountered hostile treatment from people who thought we were the people in power.

They curtly told us that our time was about to expire.

My view is that unless the situation is contained by continued stability, there is big chance of a possible genocide in Uganda. Some overzealous Ugandans are craving for a chance to unleash revenge on the ruling tribe.

This has been the same pattern where Ugandans torment and persecute members of a tribe that has been overthrown from power. When Gen Amin was overthrown, his tribesmen had to flee to exile.

president Idi  Amin was largely surrounded by his tribesmen whop later faced the wrath of the citizens when he was overthrown

 When president Obote was overthrown, the people of northern Uganda faced a lot of direct persecution.president Museveni seems to be doing exactly what his predecessors did in regard to putting his tribesmen at the fore of everything , hence exposing them to danger. 
This is the same reason why the kanyamunyu murder had been made to look as if the people from the ruling tribe are now killing ugandans with the intention of inciting the country into a genocidal reaction. 

The government needs to address the issue of ethnic balancing in job allocation. Otherwise we are sitting on a very big genocidal bomb that will explode anytime.

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a Ugandan journalist and a blogger contact him kamwadafred@gmail.com