Summary:

• Police in Busia are investigating the murder of primary school head teacher Charles Emoto, fatally shot during a robbery, with suspicions pointing towards an inside job involving members of a table banking group and close associates; the assailants escaped to Uganda where recovered safe boxes lacked the stolen money.

Police in Busia have launched investigations into the murder of a primary school head teacher in Teso South.

The officers indicated that they were narrowing down to close friends of the deceased, identified as Charles Emoto from Ong’ariama Primary School.

Emoto was fatally shot in the stomach at around 12:40am on Thursday, with the bullet exiting from the back of his waist.

According to police, the assailants robbed their victim of an unspecified amount of money in two safe boxes and escaped on a waiting motorbike into neighbouring Uganda where the safe boxes were found without money.

One of the officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) unit in Busia disclosed that they intended to question members of a table banking group where the teacher was a treasurer, together with the deceased’s wife.

The officer linked the murder to an inside job, stating that they have widened their investigation to Uganda.

“The amount in question is Sh60,000. However, based on our preliminary investigation, this is an inside job and that is why we are narrowing it down to the members of the table banking group and close family members and friends,” said the officer.

“The issue of safe boxes that store money being recovered in Uganda is just a diversionary tactic by robbers because no one can travel from Uganda and come to steal money from a local, the suspects are from within Busia and we have already established a lead and we hope to arrest the suspects soon,” he added.

Teso South Sub-county Director of Criminal Investigations Said Juma said they have established a lead in the investigation, stating that the safe boxes and the record book of the members found in Uganda have been taken for forensic analysis and the bullet recovered at the scene of the crime has been taken for ballistic analysis.

“There are some of the key areas and aspects in this investigation that we have already established as we continue with our investigation but we are calling upon members of the community to volunteer information that would be useful in unravelling the truth,” said Juma.