Uganda Labour minister Charles Okello Engola shot dead by bodyguard

Charles Okello Engola, Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations. [NBS, Uganda]

A bodyguard has Tuesday morning shot and killed a government minister in Uganda.

Col. (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola is Uganda's Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations.

The inicident according to local media, was a private dispute.

The deceased served in the government of President Yoweri Museveni. He was a retired army colonel.

The attacker, who has not been publicly identified, is reported to have shot himself, according to state broadcaster UBC and others.

Dispute over wages

The shooting took place inside Engola's home in a suburb of Kampala. Police detectives are now at the crime scene.

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 send 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.