It is a story of a blood-thirsty taxi driver and sex-crazed touts. Before his arrest, the serial killer had murdered five women in 69 days.
The victims would enter his taxi, plying the Entebbe- Kampala highway, as innocent — and then, the notorious killer, either with the aid of drugs, would abduct them and turn them into sex slaves before strangling them.
To cover his acts, detectives said, Isaac Niwagaba, a 30-year-old commuter taxi driver based in Kampala, dumped the lifeless bodies in a swamp at Kajjansi, Wakiso district.
Cases of missing youthful women had become the talk in Kajjansi.
Families had for some time combed the neighbourhoods with no sign of the missing women. All eyes were on Kajjansi Police Station, with families of victims wondering who kidnapped these women.
The mystery that shrouded the missing women was reminiscent of a previous gang that targeted barmaids and waitresses in 2017 in Entebbe.
VICTIMS
The most recent case involved the disappearance of Sandra Nangobi on May 15.
Her mother, Sulaina Tendo, reported her missing after Nangobi left her home in Kitende “B” cell, Kajjansi at 5:00am, but did not arrive at her workplace in Makindye.
Her phone was switched off and her whereabouts remained unknown until this week. On May 9, another unidentified woman’s body was found along Jjanja- Lutembe Beach road at around 9:00am.
The body had been dumped by an unknown vehicle, according to witnesses. Another victim, Jenipher Nassali, was found on April 29, in Bweya cell, Kajjansi town council.
Police said she had been strangled, with her face blindfolded with a polythene bag. On April 23, the body of an unidentified woman was also discovered in a sack in Kawotto cell, Kajjansi town council.
A male suspect was captured on camera fleeing the scene after setting the body on fire. Police said the first incident with similar hallmarks occurred on March 31, when the body of 25-year-old Judith Awori, a waitress at Royal Ark Restaurant in Lweza cell, Ndejje, Kajjansi town council, was found near St Luke Church in Lweza. Awori had also been strangled.
The breakthrough for detectives came when the serial killer’s coordinates were pinged on a mast next to his location.
“The gang was allegedly involved in abducting women who were either going to work early in the morning or returning home late at night. The victims were strangled, robbed of their belongings and their bodies dumped in various locations around Kajjansi,” police spokesperson Fred Enanga, said.
“Advanced surveillance techniques revealed that the victims were abducted by the driver and conductors of the taxi plying the Kampala- Entebbe route. All the victims were female passengers who were targeted, strangled, blindfolded with face masks or polythene bags and robbed of their valuables. The modus operandi in these cases is consistent with robbery as the primary motive. DNA samples from the suspects and the taxi have been collected for comparison with samples from the victims’ bodies,” he said.
Substantial evidence, including the cellular phone of one of the victims, linked Niwagaba’s gang to the disappearance and deaths of the six women. Niwagaba aka Mukiga, a taxi driver at Kajjansi stage on Entebbe Road, was picked on Saturday, May 18 from a hideout in Rwakimuli cell, Bukinda trading centre, Bukinda sub-county in Rukiga district.
Alongside Niwagaba, taxi touts Abbas Katongole, Ronald Matovu and Ivan Bawongo, were also arrested.
The gang used a taxi, registration number UAU 738T, to lure the victims.
“It is said that Niwagaba had been using a deceased’s phone, which the Police tracked. At the time of arrest on Saturday, he was still using it to communicate with his associates. It has been kept as an exhibit. It was also key in apprehending his accomplices,” a detective said.
It also emerged yesterday that at the request of the CID, Crime Intelligence operatives tracked and arrested Saddique Kasigwa alias Edison, who allegedly raped an Australian woman (names withheld) on a working trip in Kampala.
Kasigwa allegedly operates special hire services on the Entebbe-Kampala road.
POLICE RETRIEVES BODIES
Yesterday as the Police’s crime intelligence directorate operatives headed by Brig. Gen. Christopher Ddamulira combed through the Kajjansi swamps for the missing women, the serial killer located with precision areas where he buried them.
Everywhere he pointed detectives at, they exhumed a body. The serial killer was also able to identify his victims. Relatives and onlookers could not believe the scenes that engulfed Kajjansi.
“My name is Niwagaba. I stay in Zzana. I dumped some here, and others on the road. The other on Lutembe Beach,” Niwagaba said.
He added that one particular lady, he killed her because she found out that he had killed her friend.
Although he said he had killed five women, detectives said the number of women murdered by the gang could increase as investigations take shape.
The search-and-find mission has now been taken to the shorelines of Lake Victoria, especially beaches, in Entebbe.
While visiting the scene of the crime where Sandrah Deborah Nangobi’s body was recovered, in Busitokisi village, Ndejje- Lubugumu parish in Makindye Ssaabagabo municipality in Wakiso district yesterday, Niwagaba revealed that out of the five registered murders in the area, he only participated in four.
“My official job is a taxi driver and it is where I used to kidnap the victims from before falling in love with them,” he confessed, adding that he later murdered all the victims after a misunderstanding before he dumped their bodies in isolated places in Lweza, Kawotto, Ndejje and Jjanyi at Kajjansi on Kampala-Entebbe road.
Without divulging the details, Niwagaba added that on the day he murdered Jeninah Nassali, 25, he also kidnapped and murdered Deborah Nangobi.
FAMILIES SPEAK OUT
Susan Nassolo Tendo alias Mumbejja, a resident of Kitende zone B, Tank Hill Road near St Mary’s Kitende in Wakiso district, told New Vision, that her daughter Sandra Deborah Nangobi, 25, disappeared on Wednesday, 15, May, 2024, as she was heading for her normal duties at Duo Solutions at Nsambya, just behind American Embassy, where she has been working as an accountant, having graduated at Nkumba University with a degree in accountancy, in 2021.
“I am a single mother having lost my husband, Henry Bill Naimumi, in 2008, but what pains me most is that, out of the five children that God blessed us with, three died in car accidents in their tender age — that is Kenneth Kasadha and Pius and now their sister Nangobi who has been the fourth child, has joined them,” Nassolo lamented as tears rolled down her cheeks.
According to her family, at the time of her death, Nangobi was not married and had no children.
“She told me she would produce for me twins once God guides and directs her to the right husband,” her mother wailed.
HOW NANGOBI DISAPPEARED
According to the deceased’s mother, on May 15, 2024 between 5:00am and 6:00am, Nangobi received a phone call from a stranger and she heard her telling him, that she was preparing to come.
She left as usual because it has been her routine to move to work between 5:00am and 6:00am every morning on foot and she boards a taxi along St Mary’s Kitende road — Kijapan.
Surprisingly, Nassolo received a phone call from her boss one Assa Wandera, at around 9:00pm, indicating that the victim had not reached for work and yet her phone was switched off.
At this stage, the family quickly reported a case of disappearance at Kajjansi Police Station vide SD Ref: 43/15/05/2024.
Consequently, a team of crime intelligence, CCTV and CID officers went on the ground and started retrieving and viewing the footage where the victim had passed before her disappearance.
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Crime Intelligence together with Flying Squad said they will continue combing the bush, in search for more bodies suspected to have been murdered in the same style.
Reporting by Simon Masaba, Stuart Yiga and Eddie Ssejjoba Similar cases In April, Enanga warned of rising similar cases in Busoga region, especially in the districts of Luuka and Kamuli, where gangs would raid homes in the night to kidnap and rape women, especially the elderly widows.
In April 2017, a total of 23 women were killed in Nansana and Entebbe, both in Wakiso district. Several suspects were arrested and charged with terrorism, murder and aggravated robbery at Nabwem and Entebbe Chief Magistrates’ courts and were sent on remand to various government prisons.
WHO ARE THE SUSPECTS?
• Police said Niwagaba, is a taxi resident driver of Zzana in Wakiso district. He was born in Rwekimuli cell in Muhanga Town Council, Rukiga district. According to Police, Niwagaba has a family with multiple homes spread around Wakiso, Kampala and Rukiga.
When they raided one of his homes in Rukiga, he was found with a smartphone allegedly belonging to a murdered victim, a lady’s bag, a copy of a police bond from Bweyogerere Police Station and a medical form from Murchison Bay Prison, Luzira.
• Abbas Katongole Katongole, 20, hails from Kayunga district. Until his arrest, he was a conductor of a taxi registration number UAU 737I, which Niwagaba used to lure the victims. Katongole, the Police said, is a resident of Kyeyagalile cell, Seguku parish, Makindye- Ssabagabo in Wakiso district.
