The Police in Kampala, Uganda, have arrested a 24-year-old lady, Suzan Kaitesi, who is accused of locking up her boyfriend and her cousin in her apartment bedroom before setting it on fire ( love triangle)

The boyfriend identified simply as Kajumba and cousin Patricia Arinda died in what the police are describing as love triangle.

The suspect is said to have escaped the inferno while screaming at everyone within the vicinity that a gas explosion has occurred.

However, the bedroom was locked when the police rescue squad and neighbors arrived. They found two corpses when they broke into the bedroom. The bedroom keys were missing, but the gas stove was still in working order.

The incident took place on January 12, 2023, in the Kampala District’s Nabweru Kawempe Division’s Jinja Karoli Zone “A” Ward.

On Sunday, January 15, 2023, Mr. Luke Owoyesigyire, the deputy spokesperson for the Kampala Metropolitan police, confirmed the incident.

He also disclosed that police preferred to charge a female suspect with murder until they do more investigation.

According to early police investigations, Ms. Grace Sanyu’s flat, a businesswoman who lives in Kawempe Division, was destroyed by fire.

Mr Owoyesigyire said:

“The room, a double unit, was being rented and occupied by Suzan Kaitesi (the suspect) 24 years.

“It is reported that Kaitesi received two visitors identified as Patricia Arinda, 24, her cousin, and Kajumba, 27, her friend, she told the police that the visitors came to her place in the morning and the fire broke out later that evening while they were still in the house.”

When the Kampala Metropolitan North Regional Fire department responded to the distress call, two people had already died, Mr. Owoyesigyire added.

He said:

“We recorded statements from witnesses. Our officers later visited Kaitesi Susan in the clinic where she had been rushed for first aid and she was later referred to Kawempe Hospital for further management and later discharged and taken to police for questioning,”

Officials from the National Building Review Board, Umeme, and a police forensic team examined and documented the crime scene to determine the precise cause of the fire.

The two victims of the inferno were initially described by the suspect as just her visitors, according to police investigators involved in the case, who spoke with the Monitor. When pressed further, she later describe Kajumba as her boyfriend.

The suspect left her cousin sister Patricia in the house while she traveled for the holidays upcountry, according to a detective who talked to this publication under the condition of anonymity.

The suspect is accused of plotting her revenge after learning from her neighbors that her cousin was secretly dating her boyfriend.

Kajumba visited the flat on Thursday morning at 10am, according to Mr. Michael Ndyamuhaki, the defense secretary at the Njuki boda boda stage, who spoke to the Daily Monitor on Sunday.

Around noon, Patricia stopped by the apartment and noticed that the two of them were inside.

The suspect is said to have entered the apartment at 1pm and remained there for over two hours. People rushed to the aid of the apartment’s residents when they observed a cloud of smoke coming from it.

Boda boda rider Mr. Vicente Kintu from the Njuki stage took part in the rescue. He claimed that the bedroom was locked and that the fire prevented them from breaking it.

Kintu said:

“I broke into the store looking for what could have caused the fire. I found the store was intact and a gas cooker in a store and it remained intact as well.”

One Daniel Baguma, a close neighbor, claimed to have heard an explosion while outside a compound.

“I was sitting outside the compound facing the opposite direction. This was between 2pm and 3pm on Thursday afternoon when I heard a huge explosion from the house,” he explained.

“I thought it was an electric short circuit and I rushed to switch off my main switch. I was quite puzzled. I saw the owner of the house shouting that her sister was in the house. A friend of mine came up with the idea of gathering sand around in basins and started pouring it into the house to extinguish the fire as we called the Police brigade, which arrived 15 minutes later.

Another neighbour, Edith Akiiki, said;

“I heard that the girl who died in the inferno together with her boyfriend had just returned that Thursday from the village together with the owner of the house where they had gone for Christmas holidays. I am told she works in Saudi Arabia where she had just returned from,”

“When they reached the house, they started taking photographs of themselves before entering the house. While inside the house, the girl from Saudi Arabia was heard shouting at someone on top of her voice telling the person to explain where the money she used to send from Saudi Arabia went.

“Apparently, at around 4pm the girl who died felt tired because they had travelled from the village that day and she asked the owner of the house to let her and the boyfriend sleep on her bed. After a short while, that is when the explosion was heard,”

“People suspect that it is the money which sparked off this whole thing because if the fire started from the bedroom and she was in the sitting room why didn’t she open the bedroom door so that the two could escape?

“Children who were playing behind the house say that shortly before the explosion, they saw a man standing below the window of the bedroom where the fire started and they saw the couple signalling to him for assistance but he just ran away and yet the owner of the house was inside and they suspect that they were communicating to each other. Even when she came out of the house there were very few bruises to show that she tried to fight for the lives of the deceased. ”