The latest information trickling in from sources close to the medical teams attending to him at the Hospital indicates that Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, who was fatally shot by unknown assailants barely two hours ago, has high survival chances because he has so far responded well to treatment.
The bullets that had been lodged into his shoulders and thigh have successfully been removed, clearly implying the General from Kyaggwe is increasingly out of danger.
It has also emerged that shortly before the incidence, Gen Katumba had just interacted with journalists from Vision Group who sought his help to access information relating to a range of stories they were preparing about the Works and Transport sector which he has been leading as Minister.
In his characteristic humility, Gen Katumba Wamala informed them he was no longer mandated to transact any Ministry business and referred/put them in contact with the Commissioners and technocrats concerned.
He is currently receiving medication at the Hospital where high-ranking officials have been flocking for the past one hour.
As he set off from home to head to Najjanankumbi to join mourners at his wife mother’s vigil, Gen Katumba rang his errands boy Badru Mutyaba who he assigned to go and deliver tires to be able to replace those on his vehicle (later in the day).
Mutyaba says he ordinarily was supposed to be in the Minister’s vehicle except that he travelled separately since the General was heading in a different direction.
Preliminary information indicates that at the time the four assailants, who travelled on two monstrous black motorbikes, struck, Gen Katumba’s daughter Brenda Katumba Nantongo was talking on the phone and bullets caught her as she turned to look at the back on realizing something was amiss.
On realizing his blood-soaked daughter was lying in her seat lifeless, an equally bleeding Gen Katumba became more frail and distraught.
“He became more weakened as he struggled to emerge out of the bullet-riddled vehicle,” says an eyewitness.
He struggled through the vehicle window and signaled Boda-Boda riders for assistance and insisted that the one in the Safe Boda uniform be the one to rush him to Malcom X Hospital.
That, realizing the bleeding was too much, the General insisted they ride very quickly so as to enable the medics to salvage his life.
Medical sources say that the teams at Malcom X hospital did an exceptionally very good job offering the most appropriate first aid and thereby increasing the General’s survival chances.
Whereas Brenda Nantongo and the driver Haruna Kayemba died instantly, the bodyguard, whose names we couldn’t readily establish, survived without being fatally wounded. It must be such a tragic moment for the mourning family at Najjanankumbi where the wife and other relatives were waiting for the arrival of their militarily well-decorated son-in-law only to be told his entourage had been ambushed and shot at leaving their daughter Nantongo and driver instantly dead.
Gen Katumba Wamala’s attempted assassination has over the years been preceded by others targeting Mohamed Kirumira, Andrew Felix Kaweesa, Maj. Mohammed Kiggundu, Joan Kagezi and the Muslim clerics just to mention a few.
The Gen Katumba incidence, which occurred along Kisota Road in the Ntinda-Kisaasi neighborhood, has prompted social media users to initiate a debate on the need for high profile officials to be enabled retain some degree of VVIP security even after being relieved of their duties.
This, according to some social media commentators, should be the case for clerics, traditional/cultural leaders, former Ministers, former judges, ex-VPs, ex-Speakers of Parliament and other categories.
