A mob in Mukono District on Christmas Day clobbered a senior UPDF officer to death on suspicion that he was a thief.

Lt Col Keba Nepekele had reportedly entered a shop in Mukono Town and asked the yet-to-be-named female mobile money dealer to process and remit Shs500,000 to his account.

The woman, according to police accounts, instead demanded that the soldier first hands in the money to her in cash before she could expedite the phone-to-phone transaction.

Lt Col Napekeke reportedly balked, prompting the woman to become suspicious.

“The female attendant got suspicious and made an alarm. The people gathered [and] started beating the man until he died,” said Mr Paul Kangave, the Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesman.

He added: “We took his body for a post-mortem and further identification to ascertain whether he is Lt Col Keba Nepekele. We are also hunting for the people who carried out an illegal action on him. Mob action is illegal.”

This newspaper could not independently verify the accounts and our repeated calls to Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, the Defence and Military spokesman, went unanswered.

The incident happened at Nantabulirirwa in Goma Sub-county, Mukono District, at around 9:30pm on Christmas Day.

Detectives found a pistol and a UPDF identity card on the body of the deceased.

Mr Kangave said other than a few incidents, the Christmas celebrations were largely peaceful in metropolitan Kampala.

Police recorded low incidents of crime, accidents and deaths at beaches, he said.

“[Unlike] last year where several people drowned at beaches, this Christmas we have been able to enforce preventive measures. Beach managers and revellers have been cooperative, which has translated into no drowning incident,” he added.

Last year, bodies of 15 people that police said had drowned in Lake Victoria were found onshore at beaches in Entebbe. The presentation of some of the bodies with injuries, and without swelling associated with excessive water absorption, sparked speculation that the victims were probably killed elsewhere and their corpses dumped at the beaches.