Victim phoned mother before Uganda blast
Ugandans at the scene of the Kampala bomb blast in which more than 70 people were killed in a terrorist attack. The East African Community condemned the raid even as al-Shabaab congratulated the killers. Photo/NATION CORRESPONDENT
A day before he died in the Kampala bombing at Kyadondo Golf Club, Mr David Mutai Wafula had called his mother, informing her that he was to travel the following week.
He worked as a driver, and had travelled widely in the East African region. Little did Ms Grace Wafula know that her first-born, aged 37 years, would not make the planned trip to Tanzania.
“Before talking to the mother, David had sent us some money through the phone from Kampala,” said Mr Job Wafula, the father of the victim during an interview at the Nation Centre.
This was before all hell broke loose in Uganda’s capital when Somali militants, the al-Shabaab, bombed two entertainment spots, where football fans were watching Fifa World Cup finals.
The twin blasts on Sunday this week have so far claimed 76 lives and left more than 100 injured. David was the only Kenyan who died in the blasts. “When we heard the news, we tried calling his phone the following day, but it was not going through,” his father said.
On the same day, a friend of David in Kampala phoned other friends in Mombasa. “He told them that my son had died,” he said, adding that on Wednesday they checked names of the victims in New Vision newspaper of Uganda.
“His body was the only one left unidentified at the Mulago Hospital mortuary,” Mr Wafula said. “At first, the officials thought that he was a Sudanese.”
David had entered Uganda from Juba in Southern Sudan on a temporary permit early in the month. “That’s the reason they mistook his identity.”
According to his father, David often made trips to the region’s capital cities, delivering goods for various clients. Asked whether his son was married, Mr Wafula said: “I understand he has been living with a woman in Kampala and they had a daughter.”
At the same time, the East African Community (EAC) criticised the attacks. In a message of condolences to the relatives and friends of the victims, the EAC deputy secretary-general, Dr Julius Rotich, criticised the “heinous and deliberate act of terrorism”, noting that the evil deed would backfire on its perpetrators.
Additional reporting by Peter Leftie
