At about 2am on July 11, Wisborn Mumbere left his home in Sayuni Central Cell to attend a funeral. Hours later, he was also a person whose death would require a funeral.
The 20-year-old was walking through the neighbourhood when, according to Police, a mob mistook him for a thief and attacked him. His parents rushed him to Rukoki Hospital with serious injuries, but two days later, Mumbere was dead.
What began at the police station as a case of assault was subsequently upgraded to murder by mob action.
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For Mumbere's family, the tragedy is difficult to comprehend. A young man who had left home to mourn someone else became the person whose family had to prepare his own burial. But his death was not an isolated incident.
Over the past two months, Kasese has repeatedly appeared in police reports involving violent deaths. The circumstances vary -- people have been beaten, stabbed, allegedly strangled, killed following confrontations or attacked after being accused of theft -- but the result has often been the same: another death, another grieving family and another murder investigation.
A review of cases reported between June and August 2026 identifies at least 12 serious violent incidents in Kasese and the wider Rwenzori East policing area. Several have resulted in death, while others remain under investigation.
The emerging pattern raises a difficult question that authorities have so far been reluctant to answer publicly: what is happening in Kasese?
A succession of violent deaths
The incidents do not appear to have a single location or a single trigger. They have been reported in different parts of the district and involve different circumstances, suggesting that the violence cannot simply be explained by one particular neighbourhood or one type of criminal activity.
On June 14, John Kato, 32, was reportedly involved in a confrontation at a bar in Katwe-Kabatoro Town Council. He was severely assaulted by patrons and later died from head injuries.
On June 22, Grace Nakato, 19, was found dead in her rented room in Hima. Police suspected strangulation and believed the death could have followed a domestic dispute involving someone known to her.
On June 30, Peter Mumbere, 40, was allegedly attacked by a mob in Kisinga after being accused of theft. He sustained severe injuries and died while being taken to hospital.
Two days later, on July 2, Kevin Bwambale, 27, was stabbed during a confrontation at a trading centre in Mpondwe. He was rushed to a nearby clinic but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Police suspected the attack stemmed from a personal dispute.
Then came Mande.
On July 8, Muhammad Mande, 28, was allegedly attacked by members of the public after he was suspected of theft. Police said another man who was attacked with him was rescued, but Mande died from injuries sustained during the assault.
Three days later, Mumbere was attacked in Sayuni Central Cell. Police said he had been mistaken for a thief. He was taken to Rukoki Hospital but died two days later.
On July 18, another man identified only as Bright was reportedly attacked by residents in Kasese Municipality after being suspected of being a thief.
The cases continued into August.
On August 5, police recovered the body of an unidentified adult woman from River Nyamwamba under unclear circumstances. Investigators suspected that she may have been assaulted before her body was dumped in the river.
On August 9, police in Muhokya Town Council began investigating the death of Samson Bwambale following a reported fight at Mutukula Cell. A confrontation that began between individuals ended with one person dead.
The following day, police recovered the body of an unidentified adult man from a farm in Umoja Cell, Nyamwamba Division. Investigators suspected that he had been assaulted and killed before his body was dragged about 20 metres.
A police sniffer dog was brought to the scene but reportedly lost the trail.
On August 12, police in Bwera Division opened investigations into the alleged strangulation of 24-year-old Michael Mbusa, a pupil at Nyakahya Primary School.
Then yesterday, Sunday, August 16, Police in Bwera Division registered suspected suicide of a 36-year-old John Kule of Kinywangoko I Cell in Kisinga Town Council who allegedly took his own life in the early hours of Sunday following a domestic dispute.
According to police, Kule had returned home heavily intoxicated before getting into a verbal dispute with his wife, Mackline Biira. Kule allegedly threatened to assault his wife during the disagreement before telling her that he would commit suicide.
Police said that at about 4:30am, Kule disappeared from the house, prompting his wife to alert family members, who began searching for him in the neighbourhood.
The search continued until about 7am when Kule was found hanging from a jackfruit tree in the garden of a neighbour.
Some of these cases may ultimately prove to have different causes from those initially suspected. Investigations are still underway, but taken together, the reports have created a sense of unease in a district where residents are increasingly asking why so many violent incidents appear to be ending in death.
When suspicion becomes punishment
The most disturbing element of the recent cases is the number involving mob action.
In the case of Mumbere, the suspicion was that he was a thief. In Mande's case, the allegation was also theft. Bright was similarly targeted after being suspected of stealing.
In each case, the accusation appears to have preceded the violence. That is the dangerous point at which suspicion becomes punishment.
A person may be guilty of an offence, but the determination of guilt belongs to the justice system. A crowd cannot lawfully replace the police, prosecutors and courts.
Yet mob justice continues to occur across Uganda.
The Uganda Police Force recorded 4,328 homicide cases in 2025. Of these, 1,326 were classified as murder by assault and 950 as murder by mob action. Strangulation accounted for 415 deaths, while 292 people were killed by stabbing.
Mob killings alone accounted for 22.4 percent of all homicide cases recorded by police nationally in 2025.
Police say most victims of mob action were suspected of offences including theft, robbery, murder, witchcraft and burglary.
The figures show that Kasese is confronting a national problem, but they do not answer the local question of whether the frequency of violent deaths in the district has actually increased.
That requires official comparative data from the police -- something that has not yet been made available publicly in a form that allows a proper year-on-year assessment.
What is driving the violence?
The authorities who have spoken about the individual cases have largely confined themselves to the facts of each investigation. Senior security officials have been noticeably cautious when asked to explain whether the deaths form part of a wider trend.
Regional Police Commander SSP Denis Odoch has not offered a public explanation for the apparent succession of violent deaths. Kasese District Police Commander SP Hassan Hiwumbire has also remained guarded, while Rwenzori East Police spokesperson Elly Maate has generally limited his comments to confirming cases, warning against mob justice and urging residents to allow police to investigate suspected offences.
That caution is understandable where investigations remain active. Police cannot disclose every detail of an ongoing murder inquiry, reveal unverified information or publicly identify suspects before evidence has been established.
But the reluctance to discuss the wider pattern has created an information gap. In that gap, local leaders have offered their own explanations.
Kasese Municipality Mayor Chance Kahindo attributes some of the violence to domestic tensions, alcohol and drug abuse and unresolved disputes. He believes some deaths could have been prevented if communities reported disputes and suspected crimes before they escalated.
"Many of these incidents could be as a result of excessive drug intake, unresolved domestic violence and could be prevented if communities embraced early reporting instead of settling scores privately," Kahindo said.
He also links mob violence to what he describes as growing mistrust in the justice system and delays in police response. When residents believe formal justice is too slow, he argues, some resort to instant punishment.
Kasese District LCV Chairperson Eriphazi Muhindi points to another factor: unemployment among young people.
"Idle young people, combined with cheap alcohol in trading centres, is a dangerous mix that is leading to unnecessary deaths," Muhindi said.
These explanations do not establish the cause of the recent deaths, but they point to social pressures that may help explain why disagreements, accusations and confrontations sometimes become violent.
The justice gap
The idea that mob justice is partly driven by distrust in formal institutions is not unique to Kasese.
Research in Uganda has previously linked support for mob justice to perceptions that the criminal justice system is slow or ineffective, concerns about corruption, difficulties obtaining police assistance and negative experiences with law enforcement.
A Makerere University study found that perceptions of a slow and cumbersome criminal justice process, together with concerns about corruption and suspects being released from custody, can contribute to people's willingness to resort to mob justice.
Afrobarometer research has similarly found connections between willingness to participate in mob justice and distrust of police, perceptions of corruption and difficulties obtaining police assistance.
That does not mean every person who participates in a mob attack in Kasese is acting because they distrust the police. Nor does it excuse the killing of suspected offenders.
It does, however, suggest that mob violence can be a symptom of a deeper breakdown in confidence between communities and institutions responsible for maintaining law and order.
When people believe that the formal system will not protect them or punish offenders quickly enough, some may decide to create their own version of justice.
That is when an accusation can become a death sentence.
A district with a complicated history
Kasese also carries a history of insecurity and social tension that cannot simply be ignored when examining the current unease.
The district and the wider Rwenzori region have experienced periods of political and communal tension, armed violence, land disputes and insecurity. Such a history can leave communities sensitive to threats and suspicious of strangers or people believed to be involved in crime.
But history alone cannot explain the current deaths.
There is a need to establish whether Kasese is genuinely experiencing an increase in violent crime, whether the recent cases represent a temporary concentration of incidents or whether a number of otherwise unrelated deaths have simply occurred within a short period.
That distinction matters.
Without reliable comparative statistics, declaring a crime wave would be premature.
But dismissing the concern because the statistics have not yet been assembled would be equally dangerous.
The deaths themselves are enough to demand scrutiny.
Behind every case is a family
Police reports reduce human tragedies to names, ages, locations and case numbers. Families experience them differently.
For Mumbere's parents, July 11 began with their son leaving home to attend a funeral. Instead of returning after the ceremony, he became the subject of an emergency trip to hospital and, two days later, the reason his own family had to organise a burial.
For Mande's relatives, an accusation of theft ended with the death of a 28-year-old man.
For the families of unidentified bodies, there is an additional torment: not knowing what happened to their loved ones, who killed them or why.
A body recovered from a river is not simply an entry in a police diary. A body discovered on a farm is not simply evidence at a crime scene. Each represents a person who had a home, relatives, relationships and people who expected to see them again.
That human cost is easily lost when a succession of deaths is reported as isolated crime stories.
But viewed together, the cases reveal something more disturbing: a community repeatedly confronting violence without a clear public explanation of why it appears to be happening.
What are the police seeing?
This is perhaps the most important unanswered question. Are murders increasing in Kasese? Are mob killings increasing? Are alcohol-related assaults becoming more common?
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Are certain trading centres or neighbourhoods emerging as hotspots? Are there shortages of police personnel or transport affecting response times? Are suspects escaping arrest because of weak investigations?
Are residents increasingly refusing to rely on police? Or are these simply unrelated incidents that have occurred close together?
Only the police can provide the data required to answer these questions authoritatively.
The Regional Police Commander, the District Police Commander and the regional spokesperson are therefore in a position to provide more than case-by-case confirmation. They can explain whether the force has identified a pattern and what measures are being taken to prevent further deaths.
That explanation is important not only for journalists but also for residents.
When authorities remain silent, fear tends to fill the space.
People begin to rely on rumours. Every unfamiliar person can become suspicious. Every disagreement can be interpreted through the lens of previous killings. And every new body reinforces the belief that something larger and more sinister is happening.
Breaking the cycle
There is no single intervention capable of solving the problem.
Police must investigate the deaths thoroughly and ensure that those responsible for murder and mob action are brought to justice. Communities must be encouraged to report suspected criminals rather than punish them.
Local leaders must address disputes before they become violent, while interventions targeting alcohol and substance abuse may also be necessary where these are contributing to confrontations.
But restoring public confidence may be the most important task.
Residents need to believe that reporting a suspected thief will result in action. They need to believe that a person accused of a crime will be investigated rather than simply released. They need to see that murder investigations can produce arrests and convictions.
And they need to understand that handing a suspect to police is not protecting a criminal; it is protecting the community from becoming a second crime scene.
Kasese does not need another warning alone. It needs answers.
If there is no increase in violent crime, authorities should provide the evidence and explain why so many cases have appeared in such a short period.
If there is an increase, residents deserve to know what is causing it and what is being done about it.
And if mob justice is becoming more common, the response cannot stop at telling people not to kill suspects. Authorities must also examine why some residents have become willing to do so.
Because behind every number is a person. Behind every murder investigation is a family.
And behind every mob attack is a moment when somebody decided that suspicion was enough to take another person's life.
Wisborn Mumbere left home at about 2am on July 11 to attend a funeral. He never returned.
The question now confronting Kasese is whether his death, and those that followed or preceded it, will remain a collection of separate police files -- or whether authorities will finally look at them together and explain what is happening to a district that seems increasingly haunted by death.
