Baby Kakama Killers Confess

By Alex Bukumunhe

Two people who are accused of having kidnapped and murdered baby Kham Kakama have admitted having worked with Godwin Tumusiime, though indirectly.Tumusiime confessed to having kidnapped and killed the 8-month- old baby after extorting Shs30m from the parents; Sven and Naom Karekaho.

“Tumusiime visited me once at my work place (Karekaho’s home). I opened for him and he sat in the sitting room. My bosses were not at home when he came,” the maid, Melon Nabasa also accused number three, told court as she responded to questions from Principal State Attorney, Alice Komuhangi.

She said on June 8, 2010 (when the child was kidnapped), she received a call from Tumusiime informing her of how he had bought her a new telephone handset. This was before her co-worker, Florence, arrived for work. When Florence arrived, she informed her that she (Nabasa) was going to buy some airtime and left her behind with Kakama.

When she met Tumusiime who claimed to be residing at Block 15, he told her that his employee had keys for the house where she also worked at Bungalow (the next settlement from Bugolobi flats where the family stayed). As they approached Bungalow he asked her to go and buy him airtime and also requested that she leaves the baby with him.

She said on returning from buying airtime, Tumusiime had disappeared with the baby. She tried to ask residents around about Tumusiime’s whereabouts but could not locate him. She then returned home and changed the Blue T-shirt she was in when she left with the boy into a red one.

When asked why she changed into a new cloth after handing over the baby,she said she feared to go to police in a blue T-shirt because it had been handed to her by Kakama’s mother and it was branded with National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) where Naome worked as the Public Relations Officer.

She denied that the baby she has is Tumusiime’s, claiming it belongs to Ivan Nabasa of Kasubi. She also denied having known co-accused Brian Sajjabi yet in her statement she stated that she handed the baby to Brian. “At first I said Brian because I thought Tumusiime had given me a fake name because the phone he first lent me had on its screen the name Brian,” she said.

She also found hard time explaining why she did not inform police that Tumusiime gave her money to buy airtime since it was not in her statement. On his part Sajjabi admitted having written the threatening ransom note, but was quick to add that he was tricked by Tumusiime into writing it.He claimed Tumusiime owed him Shs200, 000 and when he asked him for it, he (Tumusiime) claimed his boss was very mean so he needed to write to him a note threatening that if he does not give him the money, then he should forget all about his child.

When he was shown the note, he confirmed the handwriting on it is his. There was also contradiction on the actual money Tumusiime owed him as in his statement, Shs20, 000 was written as money that accrued from the chapati stall he sold to Tumusiime.