In a heart-wrenching account of unimaginable tragedy, Emmanuel Musoke, the grieving father of Desire Mirembe, courageously revisits the harrowing final days of his beloved daughter’s life. Desire’s existence was abruptly cut short by her boyfriend, Mathew Kirabo, in a shocking act of violence that has left the community shaken. As Mr. Musoke retraces the poignant memories of his daughter’s last moments, his narrative unveils a tale of sorrow, loss, and the enduring impact of domestic violence on the lives of those left behind.
“I am a developer, I am in real estate and I build and sell houses. Mirembe Desire was my biological daughter.
She was born in 1996 on the 4th of August. Mirembe Desire was murdered in the year 2015 and I buried her at my ancestral home in Kalungu, Masaka. It was on the 11th day of July 2015.
I was with my daughter in June on the weekend of 27th and 28th. We spent the whole weekend at home in Makindye and on Monday I took her back to her hostel where she was residing. I last interacted with my daughter on 27th and 28th of 2015 June.
I thought that she was just disturbing me and I was very bitter.
I talked with my wife and told her that I have just talked to my daughter (Desire Mirembe) that she was in town withdrawing money to go back to hostel because she had a NOGA day tomorrow (the following day), how can she be in Jinja right now in the middle of the night.
And then later she called me again. I said do not take these things lightly I have received a message and I have talked to Maggie; her best friend in Nairobi she also received the same message.
Maggie was the best friend of Mirembe Desire; a daughter of Dr. Sekasanvu and she was very close to her.
Then the mother called again and said do not take this thing lightly, that Desire is missing and even Maggie has got the same message like I have.
It was a Friday night then on Saturday I communicated with my son Damulira Jonathan. I said Desire is missing that you go to her hostel or check there, then the search started from there. So Monday he went to class.
So the search started from there. I started also panicking, I called my colleagues in Kalungu. 1 called the LC5 Chairperson in Lwengo Mr. Mutabazi and I told her that my daughter seems to have been kidnapped.
The kidnappers are in Jinja and they have used her phone because Maggie had already told the mum that dad knows who sent this message.
It is Desire’s boyfriend called Mathew Kirabo using her phone. That is when panic started I started preparing to come back home. I sent a photo to chairman LC5 Lwengo. I sent a photo of her. I said my daughter had been kidnapped, she is missing, probably in Jinja.
Then I called the vice chairperson, my vice chairperson in Kalungu. People moved from Kalungu and they came to Kampala, the relatives, my wife was also calling Kampala and then that is how we started searching and preparing to come back.
We were at home in Makindye where we spent the whole weekend. We had lunch together on Sunday. I took her out, we interacted, then on Monday I drove her back to her hostel where she was staying in Makerere and then I went back to Kalungu as I was supposed to travel on the 1st of June.
She was a medical student in Makerere University and she was staying in her hostel in Makerere (Aryan hostel, the former Akamwesi Hostel).
On Monday I drove back to Kalungu then came back on Wednesday the 1st that is when I was supposed to travel to Germany. I was talking to her on the phone.
From Kalungu I came on the 1st of July and I drove straight to the airport and I was talking to her. She was never supposed to escort me but I was time bad.
I had to check in then I said, ‘hello, bye-bye’ because I had given her all she wanted over the weekend, that is the 27th and the 28th, so I left for Frankfurt Germany. When I reached Germany on the 2nd of July, stayed there from the 1st to the 6th of July then I moved to France.
On the 10th day that was a Friday I had talked to Mirembe Desire earlier on the phone and she told me she was going to the bank to withdraw money so that she could go for NOGA (Namagunga’s day) on Saturday while I was in the hotel in France.
And then that night of 10th Friday, I received a phone call from her mum in America telling me that Mirembe sent her a message that she went to Jinja to see a boyfriend but a boyfriend disappointed her that she is with a stranger in Jinja.
I didn’t know him. The only grudge I have now is here in Court concerning a case of murder of my daughter is what is paining me.
I participated with the police going to the bank, identifying my daughter, then I went to Kibuli, the CID headquarters.
I travelled with the detectives to Jinja, Kampala. I had very high expectations. She was the girl in the family of 2. She was like my mum, she took care of me.
I educated her in all those good schools from Kampala Parents to Namagunga, then to the university. She would be a doctor by now (witness cries).
When I said that I interfaced with the police, this was after the burial on 20th of July 2015. I was told that he used to come to my home, taking my daughter for a drive. I was told by relatives at home.
I called her directly, it was around 10:00 am.
Yes, I told the police that I called my daughter on the 10th of July 2015. I told the police in this statement that I talked to her and she was fine.
I do not see it in this statement and since it is not in this statement, then I didn’t. I didn’t even tell it to the police. That is the message I got from the mum before I left. She then called me and told me not to take this thing lightly because the message I had received is the same message they have sent to Maggie that is when I started panicking.
Yes I said that and that Maggie had already told Desire’s mum that she knew who sent the message and that it was Mathew. The mother has the statement, I recorded what was mine. She also recorded hers”.
When I was in Frankfurt on the 14th, I got information from her mum that Desire was murdered and they had found the body in the Lugazi sugar plantation and her body was in mortuary.
Return to Uganda
Then I got onto the plane. I left Frankfort on the 15th. I arrived here at Entebbe on the 16th day around 3:00 pm. On the 16th, I arrived in Entebbe at around 3:00 pm and on reaching home I found the body of my daughter at home and then we buried the next day on the 17th.
She had an account with Centenary Bank and after her burial the police called me on the 20th and I went to Kampala and then they took me to Centenary Bank to view the footage together with the police and the officials from Centenary Bank.
We went into a camera room and I saw the footage of my daughter putting on a blue skirt and a yellow top withdrawing money from the ATM putting it in her bag and the police made a copy of the CD and that is when I started following up this case.
She withdrew money from Centenary Bank, Garden City. She got Money from the ATM at Garden City. The police and the bank official made a CD copy. This was on the 10th at around 23:00 hrs.
The police made a CD copy and they kept it.
I had not seen the accused person before, but after the murder that is when my relatives and my son were telling me that, that guy was a boyfriend to my daughter.
My son; Jonathan Damulira, during cross examination, stated that he had never disclosed it to me before the death of my daughter, not until recently about 2 months ago, he called and told me that; Mzee I know what you are going through, I would like to meet you but I told him I couldn’t meet him and I sent him to my lawyer; Hon. Medard Segona and they met.
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