Kamuli LC5 aspirant’s husband shot dead in campaign fracas, Police say was serial criminal
Sowedi Egumbye, 35, was on July 16, 2025, shot in the head by a stray bullet in Kasambira town, adjacent to the MP’s home along the Kamuli-Jinja highway, when his gang defied Police orders to leave the home they had raided.
Egumbye is the husband of Sarah Irene Auma (pictured), one of the NRM party flag candidates for the Kamuli LC5 chairperson seat. (Courtesy photo)
By Tom Gwebayanga
Journalists @New Vision
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The husband of a National Resistance Movement (NRM) party Kamuli district LC5 chairperson flag-bearer candidate has been shot dead during a fracas between the Police and campaign goons he had led to raid the home of Buzaaya MP Martin Mugabi Muzaale.
Sowedi Egumbye, 35, was on July 16, 2025, shot in the head by a stray bullet in Kasambira town, adjacent to the MP’s home along the Kamuli-Jinja highway, when his gang defied Police orders to leave the home they had raided.
In the process of dispersing the rowdy crowd that was armed with stones, sticks and pangas, the Police fired bullets in the air, one of which hit Egumbye, before he collapsed dead.
Seeing the leader dead at the roadside and some of them having sustained bullet injuries, the gang scattered into disarray, before the situation was brought under control.
Egumbye is the husband of Sarah Irene Auma, one of the NRM party flag candidates for the Kamuli LC5 chairperson seat meant to replace Charles Maxwell Muguude Kuwembula, who died in a motor crash last month.
Auma is facing off with former Kamuli town clerk Kaloli Dhizaala, Robert Kalulu Frereeman aka “Ow’ogutwe,” Thomas Ikanga, Mubarak Ndegwe, Butansi LC3 chairperson Emmanuel Waiswa Nsongola, the director of Starlight Primary School-Kamuli, David Kamaali Sibira, Mark Derick Kibuuka and Joel Kibikyo Kidaaga.
Egumbye has been the top mobiliser of the campaigns, former housing minister Isaac Isanga Musumba, the husband of Forum for Democratic Change stalwart Salaamu Musumba, who is challenging incumbent Martin Mugabi Muzaale, for the Buzaaya County MP seat.
The incident follows the Police’s cautioning, where candidates were warned to regulate supporters to refrain from campaign violence.
Wanted man
According to Busoga North police spokesperson Michael Kasadha, the late Sowedi was a serial criminal who, over the years, accumulated over 50 case files at Kamuli CPS, linked to duping rich people through counterfeited dollars.
It is on record that based at his home in Buwagi in Nawanyago town council, Sowedi has been using either technical or violent approaches to steal millions from wealthy people from different parts of Uganda.
In February this year, one Paul Kirikye, a Mukono municipality resident, caused his arrest following the botched dollar deal where he was duped of shillings 90 million.
Kasadha said since 2020, the public has complained about the robberies, violence and malicious damage, featuring Sowedi’s youth gangs dubbed as “Eggaali.”
He added that it is alleged that Sowedi and his racket have over eight years robbed people through exchanging counterfeit dollars and robbing them in the process.
In August 2024, his gang attacked and damaged Nawanyago Police cells to rescue five colleagues who had been detained over robbery and burglary.
In 2022, a taxi driver in Kamuli town lost shillings 80 million to Sowedi in the botched dollar deal.