On Sunday, December 27, at 4:15pm, opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi broke news of Francis Senteza Kalibala’s death to supporters of National Unity Platform (NUP) who were gathered outside Rubaga Hospital.
A teary Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine regretted how he would convey the sad news to the parents of Francis Senteza aka Frank.
Bobi Wine alleged that Frank, an inner circle bodyguard had been “run over by a military truck”.
Taking to his Twitter page, he maintained that the military vehicle registration number H4DF 2382 ended Frank’s life at Busega as the crew entered Kampala while taking another member Ashraf Kasirye to Rubaga Hospital for emergency medical attention.
However, the army through the Spokesperson Brig. Flavia Byekwaso denied Bobi Wine’s bodyguard had been targeted.
“UPDF (Ugandan People’s Defence Force) would like to clarify that the late Senteza … was not knocked by a Military Police Vehicle as purported, but rather fell off a speeding car … he tried to jump to (sic) but fell off,” Ms Byekwaso said on Twitter.
But what exactly happened to Frank?
Eyewitnesses interviewed by this website on Monday morning recounted how Frank met his death.
A boda boda cyclist stationed at Busega stage who moved with Bobi Wine’s motorcade from Kyengera, maintained that Frank had fallen off a minibus commonly known as a Drone.
This boda boda man asked this website to protect his name, wishing to speak on condition of anonymity saying it would be suicidal to expose his identity.
This website has established that whereas NUP members described Frank as “cool guy”, moments before his death he had assaulted a motorist at Kyengera as he tried to clear way for Bobi Wine’s motorcade.
Busega- Kyengera saga:
Being a holiday, Kyengera was congested with traffic since many people were returning from upcountry to celebrate Christmas.
It is a norm for Bobi Wine’s private bodyguards to jump off their cars and clear the road for the candidate.
And because the team was rushing Ashraft to hospital, Frank was “rough” while clearing the road.
At Kyengera as he directed vehicles to move off the road, he beat a private motorist severely who was coming from the opposite direction for failing to give Bobi Wine way.
To confirm this allegation raised by the eyewitness, TrumpetNews established that the motorist assaulted by Frank at Kyengera was identified as Enock Kamuntu, he lodged a complaint at Kyengera Police Station.
The assault case is under vide: CRB 274/2020. Kamuntu in his complaint said he is a resident of Ntinda and he was in Kyengera to run personal errands when a ‘NUP Kanyama’ pounced on him saying he should give way to the ‘president.’
Further, this website established that Frank was travelling in a minibus registration number UBF 850z. This vehicle is commonly referred to as a Drone because of its speed. NUP owns many of these drones.
After Frank and his colleagues managed to clear the road, from Kyengera to Busega roundabout.
“At Busega, that man (Frank) was standing on the double cabin pick up which transports Electoral Commission security detail that protects Bobi Wine,” another eyewitness said.
This pickup was in between Bobi Wine’s official car and the Drone.
Because all the cars were in motion, Frank told the driver of the drone to get closer so that he jumps and enters.
“While in motion, he missed to step on the metallic rail on the minibus’ door, he slipped, he hit his head on the door and eventually landed his face on the tarmac,” said a boda boda cyclist.
When asked if there was presence of a military and police truck, he said yes. “They were in a distance of around 50 meters.”
The witness added that the drone immediately stopped and Frank was picked from the tarmac while alive and rushed to Rubaga Hospital as well.
He said no military car got even close to where Frank had fallen before he was picked off.
Number Plate Plucked off
Police which was present informed Old Kampala Police Station about the matter. The cops at the scene were directed to impound the drone so as to begin investigations but the NUP security team became errant.
Bobi Wine’s other bodyguards immediately plucked off the number plates of the drone to conceal the evidence.
While at Rubaga, Police asked management of the hospital not to allow the numberless drone to leave premises but NUP supporters vowed to burn down the hospital should management listen to police orders.
The situation became worse as NUP crew became rowdy forcing police and military to fire bullets.
Postmortem rejected
TrumpetNews has further established that Rubaga hospital offered an ambulance to Bobi Wine and his team to transport Frank’s body to Mulago Referral Hospital for postmortem to ascertain what exactly had killed him.
Instead NUP members diverted the ambulance to Kamwokya at the head office and later to Masaka, at the deceased’s home.
Unanswered questions
Observers have questioned why Bobi Wine and his team rejected to conduct a postmortem report on Frank’s body but instead opted to immediately rush to Kamwokya and Masaka. Is there something they were hiding?
Secondly, a military truck weighs around 5000 to 10000 kilograms. Would Frank’s head be intact and would he be alive at a time he was taken to hospital, assuming he was run over by the same heavy truck as alleged by NUP members?
Thirdly, Bobi Wine’s team is very good at documenting all scenes/events of what happens in the field. How did the videographers miss to capture images of the truck and only film the moment when Frank was being taken to hospital?
NUP Speaks out
Interviewing Joel Ssenyonyi, the organisation’s spokesperson on why his team rejected the postmortem and if the establishment was hiding something or trying to frame military he laughed off saying Police and the Military should own up Frank’s death.
“Refusing a postmortem doesn’t mean Police and Military didn’t kill Frank. The family of Frank asked for his body to go and bury it because that is what they wanted,” he said.
He added that, “Ritah Nabukenya who was killed at Nakawa, after police did postmortem did they bring her killers to book?”
“With or without a postmortem the military and police killed Frank.”
He concluded that “some comments are hard to give.”
Police publicist Fred Enanga when contacted said investigations are ongoing, and the public will be briefed once investigations are over.
