The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Court Ends on a “Kuhema” note
SPECIAL REPORT | ANTHONY NATIF | As recorded in court, in the case Uganda Vs Molly Katanga and adapted from @TonyNatif on X.
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The Banyankore have an insult that they take serious umbrage at, but to the uninitiated outsider, it looks like a juvenile tantrum that at best should elicit laughter and mild pity.
It involves exposing one’s lower teeth and biting the upper lip, with the whole motion accompanied by the word “ai’maa”!
Its utterance has started many a fight in schoolyards all over western Uganda.
Here in the Criminal Division of the High Court—where it was uttered so loudly by Mrs. Naome Nyangweso, widow of deceased General Francis Nyangweso and sister to the late Henry Katanga—it was met with a kind smile from the intended target and surprise from the court attendees.
It sounded like a final cry of desperation at the end of an afternoon session in which defense attorney Elison Karuhanga, described by some as a “courtroom Rottweiler,” put paid to the state’s claims that the bullet that ended Mr Katanga’s life entered through the left side of his head and exited through the right ear canal.
Mrs Nyangweso had featured prominently in a campaign aimed at accusing her brother’s widow of killing him by a gunshot to the head (Frame 1 below of this tweet)
The earlier claims had been that Mr. Katanga was right-handed and thus couldn’t have shot himself on the left side of the head, above the ear.
Earlier in the trial, these same claims had been repeated by police pathologist Dr. Richard Ambayo, who, on cross-examination, wilted and seemed rather unsure of the theory.
Anyway, up stepped PW 20, AIP Emmanuel Olugu, trotting out the same claims and showing all of 12 weeks of crime scene training as experience enough to allow him to make that deduction.
In a methodical takedown, Karuhanga asked him where the bullet projectile entered the deceased’s head from. He said on the left, above the ear, and exited on the right through the ear canal.
UgandaVsMollyKatanga
Court Ends on a “Kuhema” note.
The Banyankore have an insult that they take serious umbrage at but to the uninitiated outsider, it looks like a juvenile tantrum that at best should elicit laughter and mild pity.
It involves exposing one’s lower teeth,… https://t.co/avBaHyxwRV pic.twitter.com/SjhxKxc874
— Anthony Natif (@TonyNatif) July 15, 2025
He then asked him where it landed.
PW 20 Olugu said the projectile hit a concrete ceiling in the couple’s bedroom and left a mark. He then asked him whether there were multiple rounds shot or just one, at least going by the recovered shell and projectile.
After a back and forth that included counting bullet holes in the mosquito net found hanging above the couple’s bed—with a heavy splattering of blood and brain matter—Olugu said he could only account for one close-range shot to the head.
Karuhanga then asked him if he found any other projectile marks on the floor, walls, or anywhere else.
He said it was only on the ceiling.
A question then came in as to how, if indeed the state’s theory was right, a bullet that entered through a higher hole and exited through a lower one could have hit the ceiling and not the floor.
He put it to him that, in fact, the bullet entered through the opposite route, into the right ear canal and out above the left ear, through a folded mosquito, out in an upward trajectory, and onto the ceiling.
For the state’s version to hold, the projectile should have ended up on the floor.
It’s at that point that a thunderous “aiiii’maaaa” came ringing out from Naome Nyangweso, complete with a disgusted look on her face. Everyone heard it and turned.
Karuhanga simply smiled at her and wrapped up the day’s cross-examination.
Earlier, Karuhanga had spent some time going back and forth with the witness, whom he accused of being coached to deny the massive domestic violence suffered by his client. The beatings left her blood spread all over the bedroom floor, doors, ceiling, sink, walls etc
It was so bad that police ran out of letters of the alphabet trying to mark the different spots she bled.
According to earlier evidence from the director of forensics in the Uganda Police, Andrew Mubiru, the only place Mr. Katanga’s blood was found was on the bed where he died; in a suicide, as per the defense.
Karuhanga had taken over after lunch break from Kabega, who said the witness’ report was full of lies and fabrications.
Quick Update: UgandaVsMollyKatanga
In today’s cross examination, Mr MacDusman Kabega just put it to the witness, AIP Olugu Emmanuel, a Scene of Crime Officer with @PoliceUg that he covered up evidence and that his report “is inaccurate and full of lies”.
Mr Kabega asked Mr… https://t.co/94YpuPk17v pic.twitter.com/msLNyDEXmZ
— Anthony Natif (@TonyNatif) July 14, 2025
The trial resumes today with more cross-examination.
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