KAMPALA, UGANDA: A boda-boda rider in Namugongo in Kira-municipality, Wakiso district has committed suicide allegedly over his inability to pay Shs 255,000 as part of his motorcycle loan.
Alex Nuwagaba’s lifeless body was found outside his rental house in Namugongo by his neighbours today. One of the relatives of the deceased told Kira police detectives that Nuwagaba has been restless for several days, lamenting about his inability to clear his loan and his loaning company, Boda-Banja located in Ntinda was not giving him any breathing space and had even impounded the motorcycle.
According to Bosco Buziba, the chairperson of boda-boda riders in Kira municipality, apart from the pressure from the motorcycle loaning company, the 33-year-old rider who was a member of Namugongo-Njanda stage, near the Catholic shrine had other family-related issues.
Buziba added: “He was having other problems, his landlord who was chasing him out of the house, after spending four months without paying rent. But also another issue he once told me about was related to three girlfriends who were each alleging to be pregnant for him. And everyone wanted marriage before giving birth.”
Buziba explains that Nuwagaba got the motorcycle reg. no UFL 512M through his friend only identified as Herbert, who had a national identification card, and it’s Herbert who had been clearing the loan per week, however, for the last three weeks his friend decided to eat the money, prompting the company to impound the motorcycle.
He added: “Herbert was not paying the weekly agreed part of the loan to the company for the last three months and the money amounted to Shs 255,000 which made the company recover the motorcycle yesterday. He did not leave any message behind, but we know that was the problem of ending his life,” he said.
His close friend Bruham Kateregga, said that the situation was unfortunate because the deceased was working and had to clear the motorcycle, only to be disappointed by his friend.
But Buziba said that the motorcycle loaning company was unfair to seize the motorcycle, after skipping only three months in paying part of the loan, yet he had paid the previous four months well.
Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said the deceased body was picked by Kira-Division police and taken to the city mortuary Mulago for the postmortem report.
A report by ministry of Health, Uganda National Institute Public Health (UNIPH) quarterly epidemiological bulletin indicates that Uganda has a high suicide rate with men at a higher risk than women.
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