Thugs Attack FDC Official, Dump Her in Busitema Forest

Tororo — Tororo FDC chairperson Keziah Nyakecho Ochwo was on Saturday morning found unconscious in Busitema Forest where she was reportedly dumped by unknown men who kidnapped her. Ms Ochwo, who was also a parliamentary candidate for Tororo District Woman seat in the February 18 polls, is receiving treatment at Mbale Hospital, after being transferred from St. Anthony's Hospital Tororo.
Narrating her ordeal on Saturday, Ms Ochwo said she had been receiving phone calls from strange numbers with a man threatening that if she does not withdraw the poll petition she filed at the High Court in Mbale, challenging the victory of her rival Ms Sarah Achieng Opendi (NRM), she would die.

Ms Ochwo said after leaving the FDC headquarters in Kampala on Friday, she headed to the Old Taxi Park but found the Tororo-bound taxi already full and that since it was getting late, she boarded an Iganga-bound taxi. "When we reached Iganga, there was no taxi connecting to Tororo immediately. Two men who travelled with me in the same taxi from Kampala told me that they had a car going to Tororo and that they needed only Shs10,000 for fuel," Ms Ochwo recalled. "I paid them Shs10,000 and entered the car. Two of them sat with me behind. When we left Iganga town, they grabbed and tied me up with ropes. They gagged and blindfolded me," she added.
Throughout the journey, Ms Ochwo said, she was beaten and threatened with death. The men reportedly demanded a CD which contains video recordings of the scuffle which ensued after Tororo returning officer Erikwaine Ngobi was roughed up by a mob, arrested and detained after he controversially declared Ms Achieng winner without results from 17 polling stations.

Mr Ngobi reportedly claimed he had orders from above to declare Achieng the winner. Ms Ochwo is using the video as evidence of vote theft in court. Ms Ochwo added: "Since I could not see, I could not tell where I was being taken. When I was dragged out of the car, I realised I was being dumped in a bush." She said while in the forest, the men beat her, forced leaves into her mouth and tied her mouth with a piece of cloth.

"One of them wanted to rape me but when I told them that I was HIV positive, they believed it and one of them even remarked that, no wonder I am the chairperson of TASO Tororo," Ms Ochwo added. She said it was by God's mercy that she survived because the men began quarrelling over the blood money.

"One of them argued that he would not kill me if he was not fully paid what had been promised. After a lengthy argument, they drove away and abandoned me in the forest," she narrated. After the men left, Ms Ochwo spent the night in the forest since she was tied up. She said a charcoal dealer found her in the morning and called more people who then took her to the hospital. "The men knew me very well but I did not know any of them. I kept wondering why one should use politics to destroy another," Ms Ochwo said.

The District Police Commander, Mr Robert Katuramu, said: "The truth will come out though it may be difficult to trace the culprits because the victim said she does not know them." Ms Achieng could not be reached for a comment as her mobile phone was switched off.