As hundreds of mourners gathered in Sironko District on Tuesday to bury Sydney Gongodyo, police were making an arrest that the rugby community had been waiting for since the video first went viral.
Obed Mugwiisa — the boda boda rider seen in widely circulated footage carrying a massive wooden log and bringing it down on the Uganda Cranes rugby international — is in custody. Police spokesperson Rusoke Kituuma posted the confirmation on X with a caption that needed no elaboration: “We have him.”
His arrest brings the total number of suspects in custody in connection with Gongodyo’s death to nine.
Obed had reportedly gone into hiding immediately after the June 5 attack near Frobel Stage in Bukoto, aware that footage showing him delivering the blow that sent Gongodyo to the ground had spread across every platform in Uganda and beyond.
The images from after his capture tell their own story — seated inside a vehicle with his hands restrained by security operatives. In another photograph, he sits on a sack, head bowed, one hand on his forehead, surrounded by residents and security personnel.
The contrast with the footage that identified him could not be more stark.
With Obed’s arrest, police now hold the following individuals in connection with Sydney Gongodyo’s death:
- Noordin Ssebagala
- Roden Ayebazibwe
- Juliet Namukose
- Elly Mondoni
- Herbert Twinomujuni
- Perigrino Katsigazi
- Darlious Tayebwa
- Hannington Tugume
- Obed Mugwiisa
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson SP Rachel Kawala confirmed the arrest of five additional suspects earlier in the week, bringing the number to eight before Obed’s capture. Detectives say investigations are ongoing and additional arrests are expected as they continue reviewing CCTV footage, mobile phone videos, and witness statements from the scene.
The family has been consistent and specific since the memorial service at Kings Park Arena. CCTV footage reviewed after the incident shows Sydney Gongodyo was not the thief. The real perpetrators snatched a woman’s handbag and fled on a waiting motorcycle. Sydney was simply crossing the road at Frobel Stage when the woman raised an alarm. The crowd looked around. They saw him. They attacked.
His father told mourners: “Sydney was crossing, according to the CCTV camera, from the other side of the road coming to this side of the road. Sydney, who was innocent, was attacked unnecessarily.”
The video that has since circulated shows Gongodyo — a physically imposing national rugby player who could have run — standing his ground and pleading his innocence. He did not flee because he had nothing to flee from. That choice, made in good faith, cost him his life.
Obed is the man captured on footage raising a large wooden log and bringing it down on him. That blow sent Gongodyo to the ground. The crowd continued after he fell.
He was rushed to Mulago National Referral Hospital and died at 7:00 PM the same evening.
The timing of Obed’s arrest — on the same day Sydney was laid to rest in Sironko — was not lost on the rugby community or the wider public following this case. News of the arrest spread through the mourners in real time, received as the closest thing to justice the day could offer.
It does not bring Sydney back. His father said as much at the memorial: “Even if they arrested them, and there is evidence that they have killed, will Sydney come back? He will not come back.”
But nine people are now in custody. The cameras caught what happened. The man who delivered the fatal blow has been found. And Uganda’s police, for once in a mob justice case, appear to be following through.
The case is registered as murder by mob action. Investigations continue.
