14-Year-Old Pupil Shot Dead as URA Smuggling Operation Turns Bloody in Busia

A tragic enforcement operation by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in Busia District has left a 14-year-old primary school pupil dead and two other people critically injured. The violent confrontation unfolded at Buhobe trading center in Bulumbi Sub-County when enforcement officers intercepted suspected smugglers transporting illicit wheat.

According to eyewitness accounts, the suspects resisted the interception by pelting the URA team with stones, prompting the officers to open fire. Amid the escalating chaos, the young victim, Dominic Wejuli—a Primary Four pupil who was home because lower classes broke off for national exams—sought refuge in a nearby tea room. Witnesses alleged that an armed soldier approached the locked room and discharged multiple rounds through the door. The gunfire killed Wejuli instantly and injured a pregnant woman, Juliet Nasiswa, who was hiding inside. Another resident, Boniface Makadya, was shot in the thigh.

The heavy gunfire sent panic waves across the trading center and severely disrupted the ongoing Primary Leaving Examinations at the nearby Buhobe Primary School. The school’s head teacher, Clement Ouma, reported that the loud explosions destabilized Primary Seven candidates during the final thirty minutes of their Social Studies paper, causing at least one candidate to collapse.

Infuriated by the tragedy, grieving relatives and local residents staged a demonstration. They carried Wejuli’s body for nearly three kilometers and dumped it inside the Busitema URA checkpoint premises to demand accountability for the reckless shooting. Local leaders strongly condemned the high-handed use of force over contraband.

Police later intervened to retrieve the body, transferring it to the Busia Health Center IV mortuary for a postmortem. Busia District Police Commander Grace Nyangoma confirmed that investigations into the deadly incident are underway.

Read more details in the Daily Monitor report.