The families of Edirisa Isabirye and his wife, Mirabu Kakazi, who died on Monday night in a suspected domestic brawl, have denied knowing about their children’s marital status. Isabirye, a resident of Katende Triangle Zone in Northern Division, Jinja City, killed Kakazi and their nine-month-old baby before taking his own life by strangling.
Residents told URN that the couple was involved in frequent fights, with Isabirye repeatedly beating Kakazi over unspecified reasons. Others said Isabirye was insecure about Kakazi, often accusing her of infidelity, which allegedly triggered most of their conflicts.
Kakazi’s father, Peter Kiwala, a resident of Namagera Town Council in Jinja District, says Isabirye, a boda boda rider, eloped with his daughter in 2020. Kiwala says Kakazi, a senior one student aged 14 at the time, went missing from home two months into the COVID-19 lockdown.
He says he initially filed a missing person report at Namagera Police Station, but after an extensive search, detectives informed him in December 2020 that Kakazi was living with a man in his mid-20s, leading them to amend the case to defilement.
Kiwala says they tracked the couple to Butagaya Sub-county, but Kakazi insisted that Isabirye was just a boda boda rider and provided fake names of an imaginary boyfriend, claiming he had fled. A detective familiar with the case, who has since been transferred, says they recorded a statement from Kakazi denying any involvement with Isabirye and resettled her with her family.
The detective says that after months of searching in vain and confirming she was neither pregnant nor HIV-positive, they advised Kiwala to enroll her in a day secondary school where he could monitor her. He says that Kakazi, who was 15 at the time and in Senior Two, seemed to be doing well but eloped with Isabirye again in October of that year.
Their teams tracked the couple in early 2022, and all evidence pointed to Isabirye. They advised Kiwala to enroll Kakazi in a boarding school, but she never returned home for her first-term holidays. Disappointed in his daughter’s behavior, Kiwala says he handed the matter over to the police, temporarily stepping back from searching for Kakazi until 2023, when he learned she had been severely beaten by her husband and abandoned at Buwenge Health Center IV.
Kiwala says he covered all medical expenses, and since she was already pregnant, he enrolled her in a technical school—only for her to flee with Isabirye again in early 2024. Kiwala says Kakazi returned home on March 7, 2025, confiding in him that she could no longer endure the abusive relationship.
He advised her to file a police complaint the next day and return home immediately, only to receive news of her death three days later. Kiwala, who describes Kakazi as his firstborn, says he was committed to securing her a better future.
“The mother of these children died nine years ago, and as a single father, I committed myself to raising my children in the way they should go, but I am broken by how Kakazi died. I hope to pick up from these broken pieces and fiercely raise the three surviving children,” he says.
Isabirye’s father, Badiru Baganzi, says his son was 31 years old but had never informed them about his wife. Baganzi says the news of his son’s actions shocked the entire family and will take time to process. He notes that he calls his children daily during Ramadan to encourage them to pray and fast, never expecting any of them to be involved in crime.
“Ramadan is a special season where I call my children at least two times a day, reminding them to pray, and I even communicated twice with Isabirye, only to be shocked by the news. I pray that God strengthens our families past the curse of killing innocent blood,” he says.
The deceased have been handed over to their respective families. Isabirye and the child will be buried in Luuka District, while Kakazi will be laid to rest in Namagera Town Council, Jinja District.