Uganda football captain David Owori killed in suspected robbery attack

Police in Katwe Division were investigating the killing of SC Villa captain David Owori after he was attacked in Makindye, Kampala, on the evening of August 4. Owori, also known as “Colgate,” was beaten by suspected robbers after resisting an attempt to steal his belongings, and he later died after being admitted to hospital with severe head injuries.

Owori was identified in one police account as 28-year-old Owor David. Reporting on the attack described him as a right-back for the Uganda Cranes, and one account said he had been named in Uganda’s provisional squad for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. SC Villa confirmed his death and the club’s message of grief quickly spread through Ugandan football, where the killing landed as more than a sporting loss.

The attack also sharpened anger over violent crime in Kampala. On August 5, members of Parliament paid tribute to Owori and used the killing to warn about rising urban insecurity, turning the case into a public test of whether police can curb street violence that now reaches prominent athletes as well as ordinary residents. One report said Owori was taken to Case Hospital before he died.

His death came only weeks after another Ugandan sportsman, rugby player Sydney Gongodyo, was killed in a separate violent attack on June 5, a sequence that has deepened fears about lawlessness and the vulnerability of public figures. For football fans, Owori’s death cut across the usual borders between sport and daily life: a club captain, a national-team player and a man on his way home was dead after what police described as a robbery gone fatally wrong.