Colonel Charles Okello Engola, Uganda’s Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations, was on Tuesday shot dead by one of his military bodyguards.
He was a retired Ugandan Army Colonel.
Uganda police spokesman, Fred Enanga, said this happened as the deceased was entering his vehicle to go to work.
The attacker reportedly turned the gun on himself, according to state broadcaster UBC and others.
Army spokesman Brig. Felix Kulayigye said in a short statement that an “unfortunate incident” led to the killing of Engola. “We shall inform the public the details as we jointly investigate the matter,” Kulayigye said on Twitter.
The shooting took place inside Engola’s home in a suburb of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
The motive was not immediately clear, but the local press said there had been an apparent dispute over the guard’s wages.
“Witnesses claim that the soldier was yelling that he had not been paid for a long time despite working for a minister,” the online newspaper NilePost reported.
The incident is likely to create shockwaves in a country where other high-profile officials have been killed in gun attacks over the years.
In 2021, a former army chief in Uganda was wounded and his daughter killed when gunmen shot at their vehicle in Kampala.
