Woman survives 4 days in pit-latrine

Sunday, 22nd May, 2011
By Pascal Kwesiga AN 80-year-old woman from Rakai district is in Mulago Hospital intensive care unit after she was rescued from a pit-latrine where she had spent four days. Clare Nanyonjo was on May 5 allegedly hit on the head and dumped in the pit-latrine by her 19-year-old grandson, Steven Muwanguzi. She was retrieved alive from the latrine four days later by residents and admitted at Kalisizo Hospital before being transferred to Mulago Hospital in a coma, Henry Mujuzi said yesterday from Mulago. Mujuzi is a son to Nanyonjo. According to Kyengezza village chairman Samuel Matovu, Nanyonjo went missing on May 5. When Muwanguza was asked about the whereabouts of his grandmother, he said she had gone to Kampala. But her relatives in Kampala said they had not seen her. The suspicious residents and the Police later discovered a hole in the pit latrine. On closer scrutiny, they discovered the old woman alive and rescued her. The Police arrested Muwanguzi and charged him with attempted murder. There were reports that Muwanguzi had earlier been admitted at Butabika Mental Hospital for treatment. But Matovu told New Vision that Nannyonjo had complained to him about the behaviour of the boy. Muwanguzi had at one time allegedly attempted to rape her, but the Police took no action. Rakai criminal investigations chief Rose Nabakooza denied knowledge of any previous case against Muwanguzi. Nanyonjo’s daughter, Regina Ddamulira, told New Vision at Mulago yesterday that her mother sustained deep cuts on the back of her head, legs and had burns allover her body. Two days before the incident, Ddamulira, her sister, and grandchildren, who live in Kampala, had visited the old woman. It is suspected that the assailant thought she had been given money.