By Henry Bongyereirwe & Alex B. Atuhaire
September 14, 2003-Monitor
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MUNYONYO - Maj. Gen. James Kazini's family woke up in shock on Saturday morning as a relative committed suicide at their home in Munyonyo. Mrs Phoebe Kazini, whose husband is away in Nigeria, said that it was a "total mess" for the family. The DPC at Katwe Police Station, Mr Basil Mugisha, has confirmed the suicide of Kigo Kikuli, who has been a senior one student at Ntare School in Mbarara. Kazini had adopted Kigo, who is a son of his brother - the retired intelligence operative, Sgt. Singa a.k.a. Edward Muhwezi - who left for the United States last month. The dead boy left a suicide note written in English, saying that he had taken his life because of this "crazy world". He said that those who think that this world is not crazy are free to stay and "enjoy it". Police on Saturday morning took Kigo's body to Mulago Hospital for a postmortem examination. Kazini himself left the country on September 5 for a one-year advanced military course at a war college in Nigeria. His wife, Phoebe, told Sunday Monitor that Kikuli was a very quiet boy, who rarely spoke. He said that the boy, whose mother died years ago, seemed to have been traumatised in his childhood. "I think he did not even get to know who his mother was. Sometimes it would not be easy to know that he was sick. He would just keep quiet and we had to ask to find out whether he was unwell and then take him to hospital," Phoebe said on phone Saturday morning. A resident in Kazini's Munyonyo neighbourhood said: " I heard a gun shot early in the morning, but there was no alarm or chaos". Suicide note Police at Katwe said that the boy had told a cousin on Friday that "he had only two days to live". The note also said that his previous attempts at suicide had been thwarted but he had finally got his chance. According to the police the final lines on the suicide note read: "I am going ... I am going, I am going, I'm gone. Wow!" Kikuli had reportedly tried to jump to death from a rooftop earlier in the week but came down when the maid spotted him. How he got the gun Another relative said that the boy got the AK-47 from Kazini's gun store at the gate. "He stole the key to the store from where it was being kept in a kitchen drawer, which was near his bedroom," Phoebe said. The gun belonged to one of Kazini's bodyguards, who were ordered back to the barracks when Kazini left for Nigeria. Kazini had before departure ordered all but two of his guards to return to Bombo army headquarters. The general reportedly instructed his driver, one Bukenya, to transport all the relieved guards and their weapons back to the barracks. Apparently Bukenya delayed and the guards left by public means, leaving their guns locked up in the store by the gate. It was one of those guns that Kikuli used to kill himself - because the only other gun in the home is securely kept in Kazini's bedroom. Phoebe said that it was a very sad day and a tragedy for the family. "Afande [Kazini] had adopted him, and everyone in the family was always so nice to him. Maybe that is why he only killed himself and not anyone else in the family," she said. Said Phoebe: "The family is grieving and we are in a total mess. But God is our witness because no one did anything at all to hurt this boy. But it seems he was so traumatised in his childhood." |
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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