Man commits suicide following loss of capital to thieves

Luuka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Police has confirmed the death of 35-year-old Slyvester Bwiso, a resident of Kiyunga trading center in Luuka town council, as a result of suicide. Bwiso reportedly took rat poison to end his life on Wednesday night and left behind a note apologizing to his business partner.

A detective privy to the investigations told our reporter on condition of anonymity that they recovered samples of rat poison from Bwiso’s house on Thursday morning. He says that Kiyunga health center IV has released an autopsy report confirming poisoning.

Preliminary information indicates that Bwiso solicited Shillings 13 Million from traders within Jinja city with the hope of supplying them rice at a wholesale price about two weeks ago. He however lost the money to thieves who attacked him on Monday last week.

Despite this, the traders piled pressure on Bwiso to refund their money with some threatening to sue him if he didn’t supply them 52 bags of rice as they had earlier on agreed. Susan Takuwa, a rice dealer within Jinja city says that Bwiso stopped picking up their phone calls only to hear on Thursday morning that he had committed suicide.

“Bwiso has been our longtime grassroots dealer who purchases rice from local farmers on our behalf. However, he stopped picking up our repeated phone calls and it was only today that we were notified how he had committed suicide,” she says.

Busoga North police spokesperson Michael Kasadha challenged members of the general public to seek guidance from their spiritual leaders and other elders when faced with challenging situations rather than resorting to suicide.

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