Over the past five days, Ms Betty Mbambu had been pregnant with grief and anxiety. She wished away the pesky thought that her 17-year-old son, Cramina Muhindo, could have been killed during the November 26, 2016 military raid on Buhikirwa palace. But why?

He was just a man herding Rwenzururu king Charles Wesley Mumbere’s livestock, she said.

However, that changed Wednesday when the Uganda police released the list of suspects they have taken into custody since the weekend. Muhindo was missing.

With the hope of ever seeing her son alive faded, Ms Mbambu like hundreds of Rwenzori region residents anxious about whereabouts of their missing relatives, paced up to Kasese Municipal Health Centre to explore if her son’s body could be among corpses that police were handing out.

In groups of ten, police officers ushered in the relatives to go and inspect the dead bodies in the morgue. Others soberly and silently endured the putrid stench at the hospital as they waited for an opportunity to check the bodies in black gunny sacks.

Ms Mbambu was told to wait. She did. Mr Muhindo’s body, if not at the municipal health centre, could be at a hospital in neighbouring districts, she thought. Tears coursed down her cheeks.

She kept a vigil at the health centre and by press time, Thursday evening, she was waiting to see if her son’s body might be among others being transferred back to Kasese from neighbouring Kabarole district where they were moved for storage when local health facilities were overwhelmed.

Police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi Wednesday refuted claims that non-combatants had been caught up and possibly killed in the raid.

“There was time given to the palace officials, including the king, to hand over these militias and that was not one hour, not two hours. We think any reasonable person who was not part of those militias could not have dared to be there and, in any case, if he or she was there and did not take logic to get out, he or she took a higher risk,” he said.

Mr Kaweesi maintained that only 62 people had been killed during the attacks despite constant reports suggesting a figure higher than 100. He, however, appealed to the community to inform the police in case they recover a body that the security forces are unaware of.

“There should be no speculation in regards to this...,” Mr Kaweesi said after warning sections of the media against what he termed as quoting his juniors. Mr Kaweesi said government would not provide any help to the deceased except the security operatives who were killed.

Fatal palace visit

Meanwhile, Mr Kikanda Bwambale, 40, was back at the mortuary to look for his older brother, Siriro, after being turned away the previous day.

Bwambale last heard from Siriro on Saturday when he visited the local king’s palace to discuss a land issue. That day, clashes broke out between royal guards and Ugandan police that left nearly 90 dead.

“My brother had never been to the palace before. He was a peasant, he didn’t know anything about politics or the kingdom,” said Bwambale. “I think he’s been shot.”

Mumbere Isaac, 27, was also looking for his brother, Nyanza. “The bodies in there are burnt and decomposed,” he said, distraught that he may be unable to identify the corpse.

The government accuses King Charles Wesley Mumbere of stoking a secessionist rebellion and stormed his palace on Sunday to arrest him. He has been taken to the capital Kampala where he was charged with murder.

Mr Tembo Jockim of the Ugandan Red Cross said his team were blocked from the royal palace during the fighting and that many people remain missing.

“Civilians, wives to the royal guards were at the palace and we know that in the palace there were children and they’re seen neither in police custody nor in the death list,” Mr Jockim said.

Cecile Brucker, a project coordinator with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), was surprised by the low number of wounded that seemed out of step with the death toll.

“We didn’t treat many injuries, only two. We trawled the local health facilities and found only 12 people being treated at the local hospital,” Mr Brucker said.

The Ugandan government alleges that kingdom hardliners want to secede and establish an independent state they call the Yiira Republic that would include a part of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, whose people share the same culture and language as the local Bakonzo.

Before being recognised as a traditional kingdom in 2009, Rwenzururu had a long history as a separatist movement, and the government said a trained, armed militia had set up camp in the palace and surrounding Rwenzori mountains.

Uganda's Internal Affairs Minister General Jeje Odongo said machine guns, machetes, spears and petrol bombs had been found in the palace.

But Bwambale said none of this meant anything to his missing brother.

"He didn't support a Yiira Republic or not. He was not interested in that."

Fear and anguish remain

Days after the violence, Kasese is gradually returning to a semblance of normality with shops and restaurants opening, but anguish and fear remain.

Near some market stalls in the town centre, Abdon — who did not want to give his full name for fear of reprisals — said the local ethnic group feels marginalised.

"The Bakonzo community feel that they have always been oppressed, even since colonial times. The whole of this region was underdeveloped," he said.

But he denied government claims of ethnic militancy or a drive for secession.

"We've just heard of 'Yiira' on press or media but publicly nobody has held a rally or any gathering about that," he said.