Three arrested after attack on American family

Mr Mathew Palm, Ms Cloe  Palm and Ms Lovely Palm. Courtesy photo  

By Denis Edema, Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa & Abubaker  Kirunda

BUIKWE- Police in Njeru Municipality, Buikwe District are investigating circumstances under
which an American family was attacked and injured by a group of machete-wielding   thugs.

Police  identified the victims who are hospitalised at Nile International Hospital in Jinja as Mr Mathew Palm, his wife Ms Lovely Palm; their children Nicole Palm and Cloe  Palm as well as the home’s security guard Mr Hope Wafula.

They were attacked on Wednesday in Kiira Zone, Njeru Municipality.

Mr Palm operates an orphanage in the area.

Reports say the attackers used hammers to break into the premises.

According to Ms Hellen Butoto, the Ssezibwa Regional Police Spokesperson,  some  neighbours who heard the victims crying for help, alerted police officers who rushed to the area.

However, she said, by the time police officers arrived, the attackers had escaped.

She said the attackers, assaulted the victims before stealing an unspecified amount of money.

Ms Butoto said that the attackers abandoned some stolen items.

“We recovered a laptop and a bag containing some money,” she said.

She said that three suspects, two of them security guards attached to Pyramid Security Company, which was hired by Mr Palm to guard the home, have been arrested.

Cases of homes being attacked by machete –wielding thugs have gained notoriety in Masaka, Wakiso, Mukono, Kampala and Mpigi districts since 2016.

According to victims and witnesses, the thugs operate with strange confidence. They wield hammers, claw bars, machetes   and pick axes, which they use to break into homes.

 Between 2016 and 2018, 12 people died in similar attacks and over 70 homes robbed with one case of rape reported.

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