Police in Nyendo have arrested two bakery workers for participating in hiding the dead body of an 18-year-old girl who was electrocuted while at the bakery working.
The suspects have been identified as Joseph Balikudembe and Harriet Nabankema, who were arrested on October 15, 2024.
Initial reports indicate that the incident happened in Kasana village in Nyendo Mukungwe sub-county on October 14, 2024, when the bakery owners brought a wielder to repair the metallic bread stands of the bakery.
According to the preliminary reports, the wires that the welder was using were old and touching the door, and when Nabukenya touched the door handle, she was electrocuted, and she died on the spot.
An eyewitness (names withheld) said that the bakery allegedly has illegal connections, hence why the bakery workers hid the body so as to kill evidence.
She added that they even took the victim to one of the clinics in the area to pretend as though she died there to kill evidence.
’’These people are hiding a lot on Nabukenya’s cause of death, so the bakery owners should be interrogated,’’ the eyewitness said.
In an interview with journalists on October 15, 2024, SP Twaha Kasirye, the Greater Masaka Regional Police Spokesperson, said that the suspects were arrested for trying to kill evidence and interfere with police investigations.
“The suspects were arrested because when Nyendo police were notified about the incident, they went and asked the workers for Nabukenya’s dead body, and they lied to police that it had been taken to Mulago Mortuary. When officers went to the mortuary, the body was not there, which prompted their arrest,” he said.
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Kasirye added that the more the body is hidden, the more suspicious it becomes and makes the relatives of the deceased and police question further on the cause of death.
Police in Nyendo are still looking for Nabukenya’s body, urging anyone with information on the whereabouts to let police know so that postmortem examinations are carried out.
This incident illustrates the urgent need for improved safety standards and regulations in various industries in Uganda to protect workers from preventable deaths and injuries.
On July 11, 2024, two mechanics, Joseph Norman Abooki, aged 39, and Timothy Ddamulira, aged 15, died on the spot after a truck tyre exploded while they were attempting to fix it at a garage in Kijjabwemi, Masaka. Their faces were smashed, and afterwards the owner of the tyre fled the scene. The explosion occurred as one of the mechanics was using a metal tool on a high-pressure tyre, leading to severe injuries that ultimately proved fatal. Eyewitnesses reported that the blast sounded like a bomb, causing panic in the community.
