Two Chinese women were this morning found dead in a residential house in Makerere-Kikoni, a suburb of Kampala.
The duo was reported missing five days ago by an official from the Chinese embassy, prompting a police search which started on Saturday February 11. The two; identified as Ren Ju, 33, and Sang Weng Wa, 34, were waitresses at Chinese hotels in Kololo and Bugolobi respectively.
Their bodies were recovered after residents became attracted to the scene by a foul smell originating from the house located near Sheron hotel and Caltec Academy Boys hostel. Police sealed off the scene at 5:00am today as investigations into the death take course.
Speaking to journalists at the scene of crime police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi said that police is holding one Fred Sembatya to aid on-going investigations into the deaths. Police is also tracking a male suspect of Chinese origin who rented the empty house in which the bodies were found. Police says the house did not have any furniture or home appliances.
According to Kaweesi, the suspect hired Sembatya’s car from Chez Johnson hotel and drove with him to Club 7 in Kololo where they picked one of the deceased women who was employed as a waitress.
“The second girl we don’t know how she came here. What we have was the first girl who was picked from Club 7 from Kololo. And the other hotel is Chinese Business hotel in Bugolobi where the second girl was working. So the two girls are Ren-Ju aged 33 years. She was working at Kololo Club 7 as a waitress. The second girl is Sang Weng Wa aged 34. This one was working at the Chinese Business hotel on 5th Street Bugolobi Industrial area. A Chinese man picked one Chinese girl from Kololo. We want to know how the second one was picked. The special hire man says he only brought one person”, Kaweesi said.
When interrogated, the land lady was found not to have the details of her new Chinese tenant but confirmed acquiring Shs 1 million as deposit for rent. Police says the Chinese embassy has already joined police to assist in investigating the matter to find the suspect.
“This case was reported on Saturday 11 at Jinja road police station by one called Yu. Yu works with the [Chinese] embassy but he was contacted by the hotels where these girls were working when they realised they were not there. They contacted him to communicate with the police because some of them have a language problem. The case was reported and Jinja road police tried to do their best but they realised this required Flying Squad so they informed Flying Squad which started tracking”, said Kaweesi.
The inspector general of police Gen Kale Kayihura says police is conducting joint investigations with Chinese police through the Chinese embassy to find the details of what could have led to the murder. According to Kayihura the two ladies were stabbed to death.
“We’re going to work closely with the Chinese embassy and the Chinese police. We shall definitely get to the bottom of this. I would like to assure because this is the first murder of its kind where mafia-like character [are involved]. I would like to assure the Chinese community that we are going to work jointly to make sure that we secure them from threats that accompany them from their country of origin. There should not be any fear just like we quickly found the girls who had been kidnapped because this was some form of kidnap”, Kayihura said.
Kayihura appealed to locals to always be vigilant and watch their security. He was concerned that a tenant who was staying in the boys’ quarters was not vigilant enough to report the matter having been suspicious.
“If our system was working as I had been fighting to have it work, and I’m determined to make it work, we would have easily detected what was going on here. Because there was even a girl here who had some very useful leads but nobody [took it up]. Because of vigilance, you reach an area, you report to the LC so that is why we are reviving the Mayumba Kumi idea linked with the LC. If you don’t cooperate then we shall hold you suspicious. What are you hiding? While we respect the privacy but we must have minimum information about who’s staying here, where is he from?”, Kayihura added.