While speaking to Comrade Mordecai Murrisa on Mordecai Murrisa Live, Afande Herbert Matanda Mabonga allegedly claimed that the June 1, 2021 shooting of Gen. Katumba Wamala was an inside job intended to eliminate him.
According to Mabonga, Katumba was considered influential and respected within the military and was allegedly viewed as a threat to the Muhoozi succession project. He further alleged that the operation was assigned to SFC commandos, although the regime subsequently blamed ADF rebels.
We all remember that the attack claimed the lives of Katumba’s daughter, Brenda Nantongo, and his driver, Haruna Kayondo, while the General survived.
Mabonga also made serious allegations concerning the former IGP, Gen. Paul Lokech, claiming that he had made efforts to investigate the attack and apprehend those involved, including alleged members of the SFC. He suggested that Lokech’s efforts to expose those behind the operation may have contributed to his subsequent death in August 2021, which authorities described as resulting from a blood clot.
Furthermore, Mabonga alleged that some of the commandos who failed to execute the mission were later killed.
The June 1, 2021 attack remains one of Uganda’s most shocking security incidents. Gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire on Katumba’s vehicle along Kisota Road in the Kisaasi area of Kampala.
Although Katumba survived the hail of bullets despite sustaining serious injuries, the attack claimed the lives of his daughter, Brenda Nantongo, and his driver, Haruna Kayondo. The incident triggered nationwide outrage and renewed questions about the country’s intelligence and security systems.
Mabonga also dragged the late former Inspector General of Police, Gen. Paul Lokech, into his allegations, claiming that the former police chief had attempted to investigate the shooting and identify those responsible, including individuals he alleged were connected to the SFC.
He suggested that Lokech’s determination to pursue the investigation may have placed him in danger and linked those alleged efforts to his subsequent death in August 2021.
However, authorities at the time attributed Lokech’s death to a blood clot, and Mabonga’s suggestion of a connection between the investigation and his death remains an unsubstantiated allegation.
In another startling claim, Mabonga alleged that some commandos who supposedly failed to execute the assassination mission were later killed, raising further questions about what he described as a wider operation to conceal the truth.
His revelations, if substantiated, would raise serious questions about accountability within Uganda’s security institutions.
Neither the SFC nor the government has been presented as having responded to these latest allegations. The claims remain unverified and should not be treated as established findings.
The renewed controversy places the 2021 Katumba shooting back under public scrutiny, particularly the unanswered questions surrounding who planned the attack, who financed it and whether the full truth about the killings has ever been established.
