Firearms fired at a car carrying a Ugandan government minister on Tuesday, injuring the former army commander and killing his daughter and driver, an army spokesman and local media reported.
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Four motorcyclists opened fire on a vehicle with General Katumba Wamala, Minister of Labor and Transport, in the Kampala suburb of Kiasasi, the local television station NBS reported. Pictures circulating on social media showed Wamala with his mouth open, in obvious distress next to the car and his light pants splashed with blood. Pictures on social media also showed bullet holes in a car window and casings on the ground.
“There was a shot that involved him … he is wounded and he has been taken to the hospital, his driver was killed,” an army spokesman said. Flavia Byekwaso told Reuters. “He suffered injuries to both shoulders,” lawmaker Chris Baryomunsi told NBS.
Walala’s daughter, who was in the vehicle with him, was also killed, NBS reported. There have been several unsolved murders and mysterious deaths of high-profile officials in the East African country in recent years that have fueled speculation about the perpetrators and their motives.
The victims have involved a lawmaker, a senior police officer, the country’s top prosecutor, leading Muslim leaders and others. Almost all were committed by armed men on motorcycles. The experiment in Wamala took place in the same suburb of the capital where in 2017 armed men on motorcycles sprayed bullets on a vehicle with a senior police officer.
Police officer Felix Kaweesa was killed along with his bodyguard and driver. Wamala comes from Baganda, the country’s largest ethnic group. Just before the attack, Wamala told his followers on Twitter: “I wish you a month of happiness, success, peace, prosperity, good health and wealth.”
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