Uganda’s IGP speaks out on mysterious deaths of foreign nationals

February 21, 2018 Africa , News , OPINION/NEWS

Reuters photo

 

By

Gloria Nakiyimba

 

 

The Inspector General of Police, Kale Kayihura, has released a report on the mysterious death of four foreign nationals in Uganda. These were from Sweden, Finland, USA and Germany.

 

General Kale Kaihura says two of the deceased from Scandinavia died of mixed drug intoxication.

 

41 year old Andreas Nordlander Sebastian from Sweden was found dead in his hotel room at the Sheraton hotel in Kampala on the 5th of February. Thomas Teräsvuori Petteri ,42, was found dead in his room at the Pearl of Africa Hotel in Kampala on the 6th of February.

 

On the 17 of February American national Guy Monte Watson was found dead in his hut at Bwana Tembo Safari Camp. Police boss Kaihura says Mr. Monte died of acute heart failure. He was visiting Murchison National Park with three other Americans who left him for a tour of Kidepo National Park but was later found dead.

 

Rita Sharlot, a 76 year old German national, collapsed on a nature walk in Murchison park in Nwoya district on Monday 19th February. She was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Pakwach hospital where she was rushed for treatment.

 

Dr. Moses Byaruhanga, a police pathologist who led a team of police investigators, told the media in Kampala that a postmortem report from the government analytical laboratory on the Swedish and Finnish nationals showed no visible signs of struggle or any form of foul play.

 

The investigations were done to establish whether their deaths were intentional; murder or manslaughter, or if they were unintentional deaths.

 

According to Dr Byaruhanga the Andreas Sebastian and Thomas Teräsvuori Petteri died of hypoxia- a deficiency of oxygen in blood caused by drug intoxication.

 

“The deceased bodies showed no physical injuries, their internal organs were in normal state with features suggesting low oxygen in blood,” he said.

 

At the time of filing this report, a postmortem on German national Rita Sharlot had not been done yet as her body was being transferred to the city mortuary in Kampala from Pakwach hospital where she passed away.

 

According to Kaihura, Teräsvuori arrived in Uganda from Finland on 5th of February in the company of unnamed Finnish politicians on the purported invitation by the director of Internal Security Organisation-ISO, but Kayiru has since said an invitation that was later seen by investigators was forged.

 

Andreas had arrived in Uganda on the 4th from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and was found dead the following day after his wife attempted to contact him but failed to get through. Kaihura says his wife in Dar es salaam alerted the Sheraton hotel management who forcibly opened his hotel room where he was found dead.

 

 

 

 

Gloria Nakiyimba

Gloria has experience spanning more than five years in Journalism, particularly in field reporting, editing, newscasting and management. She is currently working with Capital Radio Limited [91.3 Capital FM and 96.3 Beat FM] as Head of News, a position she has held since 2010.

Gloria previously worked as the Kampala Correspondent for Radio France International [RFI] generating local story leads with international inference for RFI’s global audience. She also served as Political Editor for The Weekly Mail Newspaper as well as Online Content Editor for the California based Ugandan broadcaster KubutakaRadio.com.

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