The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Rodney Muhumuza
13 November 2009
Maj. Gen James Kazini's widow says she is doubtful that Lydia Draru, her husband's alleged killer, was the lone assailant in the killing of the former army commander.
"I highly doubt he was hit by a woman [acting] alone in that kind of way," Ms Phoebe Kazini told the Daily Monitor. "I think that other people were involved, but of course there was this lady."
Ms Kazini, who has three children with the former army commander, said she would raise her concerns with the Police, possibly after burial. "Do you think a woman can fight a man in such a way?" she asked. "She must have been among the group which did it. We really doubt that she is the one who did it the way it was done."
Ms Kazini said the family would like "to have more information". Her questions came as the Police announced yesterday that they were not looking for more suspects in the killing of Gen Kazini, who was found dead in his lover's house.
"We are still investigating.
We are compiling our file on Lydia Draru," said Judith Nabakooba, the Police spokesperson, adding that Ms Draru, who has confessed to killing the man in self-defence, is the only suspect.
However, one Bosco Lule, the LC1 chairman for Wabigalo, the village in which Ms Draru's house falls, was yesterday arrested on a theft charge related to the murder.
"We are not linking him to the murder," Ms Nabakooba said, adding that the money may have been Gen Kazini's. "It is suspected that Draru gave some money [$300] to Lule after she committed the murder. The motive is not yet clear."
According to Ms Draru's narration of events, she killed the man after an intense domestic quarrel in which he accused her of stealing his money.
Gen Kazini was on Tuesday morning found dead in the living room of a two-bedroom house, with Ms Draru claiming responsibility for the multiple cuts on his head.
Ms Draru's eagerness to accept guilt was one of the reasons that made the family doubt she had acted alone, Ms Kazini said.
Ms Kazini's concerns seemed to dovetail with the advice that several friends of Gen Kazini gave detectives after viewing the crime scene.
Trade Minister Kahinda Otafiire asked detectives to consider the possibility that Ms Draru "could have been assisted". Repeated efforts to reach Edward Ochom, who heads the Criminal Investigations Directorate, were futile.
The earliest policemen to reach the crime scene came several minutes after bodaboda cyclists had arrived there, and is it possible that the integrity of the crime scene had been breached by then.
During a parliamentary session yesterday, some MPs also doubted that the alleged killer could have acted alone and demanded an investigation.At Gen Kazini's home in Munyonyo yesterday, mourners kept speaking in hushed voices.
There will be a requiem service for Gen Kazini at All Saints Cathedral today, and burial is tomorrow afternoon in Ssanga, Kiruhura District.
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