On Saturday, August 1, Johnnie Ahimbisibwe aka Johnnie Danzel Jermaine left home for town. Smart, the middle-aged man was upbeat, perhaps even thinking of having an evening out. Evening out he did have, but he was never to return to his home alive.
On late Saturday night/Sunday morning, Johnnie, as he was popularly known by friends, breathed his last after being stabbed with a piece of broken glass, reportedly by Ivan ‘Ivyo’ Diesel Kamyuka, an old friend-turned-foe.
It is said the two parted ways when Ivan started dating Johnnie’s baby mama and their meeting in Ange Noir’s Club Guvnor 40+ on that fateful late Saturday/ early Sunday was the last time they would meet as rivals over Nina Nyarwaka, as Johnnie was pronounced dead on arrival at Case Medical Centre where he was rushed for treatment after the gruesome Guvnor incident.
The world over, there is a tendency of two human beings meeting and realizing that they have a lot they want to share, they are compatible. The two fall in love and voila, we have an inseparable couple who are head over heels in love with each other, simply the Law of Attraction. However, as we all know, not all relationships last forever; some might last for just a day, a week, a month or even longer.
And, there are also some cases where an individual might be involved with more than just one partner and this does not necessarily apply to only Muslims. For example, we have the French who are well known for their open relationships (here an individual is betrothed to one partner but still feels free to have another relationship with another individual outside that relationship).
But when these relationships come to an end, it is mostly a sad time for either both partners or one of them due to a mixture of emotions.
Indeed, the results of such breakups can sometimes be far from pleasant, at times even leading to the death of either both partners or just one of them.
So, let us look at a few examples of relationships that turned sour and resulted in fatal consequences right here in our backyard.
Like any human being even men of prestige and power are
prone to the emotions of any ordinary human being and when former President Idi Amin discovered that his second and favourite wife Kay Amin was having an affair with Dr. Peter Mbalu Mukasa, he was quick to orchestrate her demise by dismembering her body.
Another high profile crime of passion was that of Major Gen. James Kazini, who was killed by Lydia Draru, his then partner outside marriage. Little is known as to what preceded the November 2009 murder but people have attributed it to love gone sour.
Another example of a relationship gone sour was the death of Brenda Karamuzi, who was murdered by her boyfriend Tom Nkurunjira aka Tonku in 2010. Then there was the case of Jackie Uwera Nsenga, who killed her husband Juvenal Kananura Nsenga in January 2013, after the two reportedly engendering a long and troubled marriage. In 2014 Jackie was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Last but not least, workers at Workers House were shocked when Fiona Mutamba stabbed to death her lover Baker Kirenzi, when she was caught cheating on him with another man.
So, the question is why would one kill or physically hurt one they care for?
In Amin’s case, many say he was driven to kill Kay because he felt the wife had belittled a president of Uganda and military General at that. And, because of his position, Amin was not subjected to a mental check to establish his state of mind at the time of the murder of Kay Amin.
But the ‘smaller’ fish like Draru, Tonku, Jackie Nsenga and Ms Mutamba are normally subjected to a mental check at Butabika Hospital or any other facility with a psychiatry unit. And, once established that a crime of passion was committed, the suspect is then put to trial, charged with either murder or manslaughter, depending on the circumstances.
However some of these individuals are believed to at times become prone to fits of anger that drive them to act irrationally and in the process carry out such gruesome and heinous crimes.
For instance, eyewitnesses say Ms Draru very remorseful after killing Maj. Gen Kazini, wailing her lungs dry and later turning herself over to police. However such crimes do not only occur in Uganda.
In Manhattan Portuguese TV personality Carlos Castro, 65, was murdered by his lover, aspiring Portuguese model Renato Seabra, then 21 in 2011. The male model hit the journalist with a computer screen, then stomped him to death before cutting off his testicles and wearing them as bracelets. According to Rubin Sinins, an attorney, the murder happened during “an hour long psychotic fit”. A Dr. Jeffery Singer went ahead to add that it was ‘insanity’ that led Seabra to murder the renowned fashion journalist.
“He was still breathing in a very heavy way. I was thinking he was the devil. How could he be still breathing?…” afraid the devil would wake up and kill him, the model continued to beat him later cutting off his testicles: “The power of the monster is in the balls. If I cut these he will lose all the power,” Seabra explained.
Another scenario that further proves the insanity that overtakes these people, causing them to murder their partners is when the mutilated body of a transgender prostitute was discovered in an apartment in Brisbane after her fiancé Marcus Volke, a chef, murdered her and begun to cook her body parts. The couple met in a brothel in Melbourne where they both worked as escorts.
Volke was later discovered in a bin with his throat sliced open in what is believed to have been suicide. A high school friend of his described him as normal, although he had a ‘dark side’ to him.
Well, at the end of it all, the question remains: Why would one kill or physically hurt one they care for? A Crime of Passion?
