The Communications Director for Mukono Diocese, Moses Ssewankambo and a Mukono-based Vlogger Dalton Yiga Matovu, last night survived with severe injuries after being waylaid by goons as they retired home from a function at Ssonde in Goma division, Mukono Municipal Council.
Yiga, who formerly corresponded with Radio Simba from Mukono was severely injured and was treated with stitches in the face and on the head. By press time, he was on bed rest at his home in Nama sub-county.
According to Ssewankambo, they met their assailants at around 1:00am Ssonde and were stopped by a boda boda cyclist and two ladies who waved to them to stop. When he stopped, a heavy stone was hurled at the car from behind, whereupon Yiga got out to find out what was happening.
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Immediately, an army of the goons sprung from the buildings along the road, pounced on him and started beating him seriously. “I drove a few metres ahead to get the car away from them and then walked back to try to rescue my colleague who had branched off at a mosque while screaming for assistance, which was not forthcoming because the mosque was closed,” Ssewankambo told Kyaggwe TV on phone.
He said they jumped into the car and sped off heading to Seeta police station. But before getting to the police, a boda boda cyclist confronted them as if seeking to offer help. He asked them what the matter was but before they could answer, he attempted to reach for the car ignition keys upon which Ssewankambo drove away.
He drove to the petrol station next to Jomayi stones at Kiwanga-Lwanda and recounted their ordeal to the security guards. At that time a convoy of boda boda cyclists who came following them also stopped at the filling station and told the askaris that the two were attempting to steal a motorcycle from one of them.
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The cyclists daringly grabbed Yiga who was profusely bleeding, made him sit down on the ground and continued beating him. The night guards rang Coca Cola police who dispatched a team to the scene. The cyclists maintained their stand that the journalists were thieves, upon which they produced their press cards to police.
The Coca Cola police officers rang their Mukono colleagues who dispatched a patrol vehicle. On seeing the patrol vehicle, the cyclists fled but the one who was standing with the two women in Ssonde was arrested and taken to police.
At the police station, the journalists recorded a statement and Yiga was taken to a private health unit where he was stitched twice, near the eye and in the head.