Court hears how Molly Katanga was found bleeding, broken, and barely alive

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The High Court in Kampala, presided over by Lady Justice Rosette Comfort Kania, has today watched a harrowing police crime scene reconstruction footage that laid bare the desperate condition in which Molly Katanga widow of slain businessman Henry Katanga was found on the morning of November 2, 2023.

The video, tendered as evidence by state prosecutors, captured the testimony of Charles Otai, a co-accused and nursing officer at Bugolobi Medical Centre, who recounted the appalling sight that greeted him when Molly was wheeled into his emergency room.

Otai, who had known the Katanga family for years, told police investigators that Molly was rushed to the clinic by her daughter, Patricia Kakwenza, who burst through the hospital gates in a Land Cruiser V8, shouting frantically.

Racing to the vehicle, Otai found Molly Katanga sprawled in the backseat, drenched in blood—barely conscious. Her head, he recalled, had been split open so violently that parts of her brain were exposed. Her hands, were broken from the wrists, fingers twisted and mangled. One finger, he whispered, hung by nothing more than a shred of flesh.

“She was unable to sit. She was in shock, in agony… broken beyond words,” Otai narrated in the video. “Her finger was fractured, her hands were shattered, and the blood just kept pouring. It was too much for us to handle.”

A referral was hurriedly written for the International Hospital Kampala (IHK), where trauma specialists could attempt to save her life. Patricia, who Otai described as “crying uncontrollably, trembling,” had initially pleaded to take her mother to Ruby Hospital. But Otai intervened.

After ensuring that Molly was admitted and receiving care, Otai returned to Bugolobi to document what he had witnessed though, as he admitted on camera, it was a memory that would haunt him forever.

The court heard that these graphic details were part of a wider police investigation now drawing in not only Molly but also her daughters Patricia and Martha Nkwanzi, as well as Otai himself and a household staff member George Amanyire. They stand accused of being accessories after the fact and tampering with a crime scene.

But today, in that silent courtroom, Otai painted a chilling picture of the image of a mother, broken, bleeding, clutching at life while her daughter wept beside her.

Court resumes tomorrow