Col. (rtd) Charles Okello Engola, the state minister for labor, employment, and industrial relations in Uganda, was shot dead on Tuesday morning at his residence in Kampala, the nation’s capital, by one of his bodyguards, Wilson Sabiiti, according to a report in the East African.
This information was provided by police spokesperson Fred Enanga, who insisted that Ronald Otim, another minister’s aide-de-camp, also suffered serious injuries and was sent to Mulago Hospital for treatment.
“One of his bodyguards is accused of firing several shots at close range at Engola’s home in Kyanja. He ran away from the scene and went up to the Kyanja Trading Center on Ring Road, where he entered a salon and also killed himself, according to the police.
Security forces surrounded the crime scene as police began their investigations. Maj Gen Geoffrey Tumusiime Katsigazi, the deputy inspector general of police, and Maj Tom Magambo, the director of the criminal investigation division, were the first security personnel to arrive at the minister’s apartment.
The bodyguard griped that the slain minister owed him several months’ worth of unpaid salaries before he shot himself. He did this while he fired warning bullets into the air to warn Kyanja town’s citizens.
According to the guard, Ush4 million (about $1,000) was unpaid. The man, according to the eyewitness, stated his wife was expecting a kid and that, despite the minister’s children attending school, his children weren’t.
However, Betty Amongi, the minister of gender and labor, who was among the first representatives of the government to reach Engola’s house following the shooting, told journalists that Sabiiti “was a new bodyguard.”
For a month, he has served as his bodyguard. He arrived from Bombo and joined the other security officers from the Ministry of Gender and Labour who were assigned to the minister, according to Ms. Amongi.
Mr. Enanga, the police spokeswoman, said it was too early to determine the shooting’s purpose.
“Review of the probe is presently in its early stages…Before we have confirmation, we don’t want to speculate about the shooting’s purpose, the police spokesman said.
The minister was shot on the way to a Cabinet meeting, according to Chris Baryomunsi, minister of ICT and national direction.
