- Police say the killers inserted cloth into the girl’s mouth to prevent her from screaming before she was killed.
- Items stolen included shoes, clothes, a TV set and a laptop, all belonging to the owner of the house.
Police have launched investigations into an incident in which a Ugandan girl is said to have been defiled before being killed in Malaba town.
Teso North subcounty police commander David Muange told the Star the body of the girl, who at the time of her death was working as a house help in Malaba, was found under her bed on Monday evening.
She may have been killed before the body was pushed under the bed, Muange said.
There were no bruises on the body, police said.
The killers, according to Muange, inserted cloth into the girl’s mouth to prevent her from screaming.
He, however, did not confirm claims of defilement, although a neighbour told the Star the girl’s body was found with legs tied apart and her clothes torn.
The OCPD said defilement claims will only be confirmed after a postmortem. He said the police have no capacity to establish whether that took place.
Muange said the owner of the house where the murder took place runs a chemist and hotel business in the border town and had sent a boda boda rider to deliver milk to the girl at about 4pm on Monday.
The main gate to the compound was locked from inside when the rider arrived. This prompted him to return to the house owner’s chemist to report that no one was at home.
“That is when the owner of the house went and opened the gate because she had an extra key. She opened the door to the house and found the girl tied under the bed dead,” Muange said.
The body was taken to the Kocholya Level Four Hospital mortuary in Teso North.
The Teso North subcounty security committee held a meeting on Tuesday and, among issues, discussed how to improve security in the town and the subcounty at large.
Muange said officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had taken up the case and investigations were on. He called on the public to stop speculating on the circumstances under which the girl died and allow police to conduct their investigations.
By Tuesday, no one had been arrested in connection with the murder.
Muange said the house in which the girl was murdered was isolated and had no frequent visitors.
“The house has a very high wall around it and neighbours say no one would enter there during the day when the owner was away. It is isolated to the extent that if anything happened, even neighbours would not know. It is only the househelp who stayed there during the day,” Muange said.
Valuables stolen included shoes and clothes belonging to the owner of the house, a TV set and a laptop, all belonging to the house owner.
Muange said the killers may be known to the girl and the reason for her killing may have been to ensure she does not reveal their identity.
“They may have wanted to conceal their identity,” he said.
He said among people police are investigating is the bodaboda rider who the owner of the house frequently sent home when she was at her business presmises.
In a separate incident, police are investigating circumstances under which a man was stabbed and killed in Malaba town on Monday night.
The incident happened less than 100 metres away from the scene where the Ugandan girl was murdered.