Police: Gun, Catridge in Akena Shooting Still Missing

The Saturday night shooting incident at Lugogo Forest Mall has taken a new twist after police confirmed that both the gun and the cartridge from the bullet are missing.

Kenneth Watmon Akena, a social worker hailing from Kitgum district succumbed to gunshot wounds at Norvik Hospital after being shot while in the Forest Mall Parking area.

Two people identified as Matthew Kanyamunyu and Cynthia Munwangari have since been arrested in connection to the shooting.

But the police are still struggling to reconstruct the scene of crime at Forest Mall after it was established that both the gun and the cartridge from the bullet are missing. With the missing cartridge, the Commandant Flying Squad, Herbert Muhangi, concluded that the scene had completely been tampered with at the time the scene of crime officers arrived thus nullifying the report.

According to a source at the Flying Squad Headquarters, both the gun and cartridge disappeared at the scene before police responded to a gunshot sound. This, according to the source, is a sign of a well-trained individual having shot Akena.

During interrogation, Kanyamunyu denied owning or being in possession of a firearm but some of the neighbors interrogated at his Mengo-based home told police operatives that he has been moving with a pistol and using it to threaten people he disagrees with.

Kanyamunyu allegedly shot Akena after the victim reportedly scratched the suspect's car while parking his. A security guard who was at Lugogo Mall, who prefers to remain anonymous, says most witnesses point to a man as the shooter. He says their suspicion is that the gun has been hidden and the suspects are trying to get their way out.

Kanyamunyu's relatives, on the other hand, state that the bullet that Akena could have been hit by a stray bullet targeting Kanyamunyu and Munwangari.

The operatives who searched the suspect's home failed to find the pistol, but were able to find documents indicating that Kanyamunyu is a Ugandan national.

Kanyamunyu in his statement says, "I only acted as a Good Samaritan and helped a man that I found lying in a pool of blood at Lugogo where I had gone with my fiancée to party."

The police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi told URN that police is still interrogating the security operatives attached to Forest Mall as well as reviewing the CCTV footage.

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Kanyamunyu is a city businessman and Chief Executive Officer of Quantum Express Logistics located along Second Street in Industrial Area. His company deals in warehousing, Air freight, Customs brokerage, and ocean freight among others.

Munwangari is believed to be Kanyamunyu's companion and the two were travelling in the same car at the time of the shooting. Her social media account describes her as the CEO & founder of Bujumbura Fashion Week and CyMun Collection. She's a Burundian national.

Police is also investigating circumstances under which Akena's vehicle, a Blue Premio registration UAU 995G, moved from the scene of crime and was later found on Jinja Road.

One of the investigating officers who preferred anonymity told Uganda Radio Network that the current investigating theory is that the vehicle was moved by the suspect's accomplices to try and divert the investigations.

"Why would a thief steal a car, take it about two kilometres away and park it? It seems the suspect and his accomplices wanted the police to think the intent of the murder was car robbery," says the officer.

A URN reporter, however, noted some reluctance on the part of the police detectives to give information on the case. For instance the reporter tried in vain to get details of the car in which the suspects were travelling, believed to be a Toyota Prado with foreign number plates. The car is currently parked and covered at Wandegeya Police Station, with officers saying they are not allowed to reveal the registration plates.