Police in Fort Portal is investigating circumstances under which a senior Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) officer survived being lynched by erant students over allegations that she had attempted to kidnap a student of St Leos College Kyegobe.
Sources reveal that UPDF Lt. Col. Carol Nyakaisiki Basaliza, on Wednesday February 12, 2020, at 10:00PM, in company of two young men, dressed on military attire and armed with guns, forced herself into the premises of St. Leos College Kyegobe, in Fort Portal Municipality.
Lt. Col. Nyakaisiki claimed that she had gone to collect a nephew, also a student at the same school, a one Mwebesa, on pretext that they had a family meeting the following day at their home in Rwengaju, regarding the succession plan of her late brother Maj. Francis Kasaija, (Mwebesa’s father) who passed on two years back.
Upon entry into the school, she directly moved through the office to the staff room and found a teacher of duty, a one Freedom Fredrick.
The teacher was unable to handle the matter since it was very late in the evening. In turn the teacher requested for the deputy head teacher’s advice. Being late, the deputy head teacher was already home and advised the teacher and the officer to meet him at his residence.
On reaching the deputy head teacher a one Nabaasa, demanded to know the reason of taking the student by the Officer, who is not in his records as a guardian and the records at the school don’t indicate the army officer as an Aunt. Officially, the recognized parents are the grandfather and the mother, a one Passi Binega.
The Officer identified herself as a UPDF officer with a Movement Order and wore a military uniform. The deputy head teacher, using the principal of being a reasonable man, believed the officer and requested the teacher on duty to go and process the student’s release document, on condition that the student would be returned the following day, as promised by the Aunt.
When the boy was called upon, he was happy to see the Aunt, well aware that the grandfather had switched him from Kampala to Fort Portal schools.
However, he was curious because the same Aunt is among those who want to use him as an excuse to acquire the deceased’s pensions and gratuity.
The boy was smart and pretended to go to the dormitory to pick his sweater, but later disappeared and couldn’t be traced anywhere. At that time Col. Nyakaisiki demanded the teacher to take her with the two gentlemen to the dormitory, which the teacher complied with.
In the process, the boy demanded to talk to his mother on phone, with his colleagues listening and the mother was called, she objected to anybody taking her son anywhere.
Chaos broke out and students wanted to lynch the officer plus the two men she was with. But with the assistance of the teacher she was whisked away to the staff room and at that time the mother arrived.
No sooner had the mother arrived than the two confronted each other. But the school administrators separated them.
Shamefully, the officer drove away, leaving the boy behind and the school has since opened a case at Fort Portal Police, against the officer over her behavior and attempted kidnap of the student from school without the consent of his mother and guardian.
However, it should be that the matter pertaining to late Maj. Francis Kasaija is in court vide FPT-00-CV-CV-343/19, which was filed by Passi Binega and Adolf Mugisa Basaliza. But despite several summons Col. Nyakaisiki has refused to appear in court.
Efforts to secure a comment about the matter from Col. Nyakaisiki were futile because she couldn’t be reached through her known phone contacts.
