Ugandan immigrant killed by own son

Lisa Muñoz:

The bludgeoned body of a missing Long Island surgeon was found in the woods of Westchester yesterday, and his 26-year-old son was charged with the murder, police said.

Dr. Joseph Kazigo's corpse was discovered about noon near the Muscoot Reservoir in Lewisboro, a few minutes from the upscale home he shared with his family, police said. Cops began searching the woods around the reservoir yesterday morning after questioning the doctor's son, Mulumba Kazigo, who was nabbed late Friday.

Mulumba Kazigo was charged with second-degree murder.

He allegedly forced his way into an apartment his 67-year-old father kept in Westbury, L.I., near his job at Nassau University Medical Center and beat him to death last week.

It was not clear yesterday what sparked the murderous attack or how the son carted his father's corpse nearly 65 miles from the Pleasant Ave. apartment to the reservoir, authorities said.

Nassau County Police Detective Lt. Dennis Farrell said the doctor's body had been dumped near the water, but had not been buried.

Joseph Kazigo, a native of Uganda, was last seen Wednesday morning when he finished his overnight shift in the emergency room at the East Meadow hospital, where he had worked since 1998.

When he failed to show up for work Thursday at 7 p.m. after having been absent without explanation from his Wednesday night shift, his friends called cops.

Investigators found blood in his Westbury apartment and in the backyard. "They found the upstairs apartment in disarray. There were clear indications that some type of violent assault had taken place," Farrell said yesterday.

The doctor's friends remembered him as a kind, prominent and well-respected member of the local and national Ugandan community. Kazigo, whose Ugandan given name, Zirabamuzaale, roughly translates to "be strong for life's difficulties," immigrated to the U.S. more than 40 years ago and earned his medical degree here.

He stayed in the U.S. after dictator Idi Amin took power in Uganda in 1971 and remained a passionate advocate for democracy in his homeland. Friends say he also often sponsored Ugandans to study in the U.S.

Dr. Harry Kibirige, 64, of Huntington, L.I., a professor at Queens College, knew Joseph Kazigo through the Ugandan-American Association. He said his friend strove to raise his five sons and two daughters, all born in America, with traditional Ugandan values and traditions, including bowing to their parents in greeting.

A son's bloody revenge

Doctor's Son, 26, Is Arrested and Accused of Killing Him