Kusemererwa, on prosecuting colleagues in police court

If you are at the police disciplinary court, you will most likely see a female officer firmly seated tabling evidence against officers that have broken laws governing police officers and public servants. She is Katherine Kusemererwa, at the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police. Her firmness as she submits and cross examines officers and witnesses in the dock makes you wonder how she manages to coexist outside court with those she has prosecuted.

Kusemererwa does not lose her temper even when prosecuted officers threaten and raise their voices at her. She is often accused of malice by those on trial but that does not faze her. Her justification is assembling evidence and supporting documents in addition to lining up witnesses to ensure her cases do not collapse.

Kusemererwa was appointed police prosecutor by former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, three years ago and has so far prosecuted over 100 senior officers ranging from Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (C/ASP) to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and over 400 junior officers from Inspector of Police (IP) up to the lowest rank of Probation Police Constable (PPC). Before her prosecution role, she worked as detective at the directorate of Criminal Investigation at Kibuli at the general crimes desk.

“Being a police prosecutor is very challenging. You prosecute an officer whom you will work with in the same unit the next day. We trained with some of these officers and they would expect some leniency but criminality has no room in Police Force. The officers hate you and speak evil about you forgetting that you are also fulfilling your duties,” Kusemererwa says.

She adds that prosecuting her colleagues has brought her enemies because a conviction often means a demotion or a pay cut for a given period. Police Act says when an officer is convicted over service offences, he or she may be dismissed, demoted to a rank below or half their salary is withheld for a few months.

“Imagine a police officer who was an ASP reduced to an IP. That means the demotion lands him into the junior officers category. Such an officer will always see you as the cause for his demotion or suffering in case he is dismissed from the force. They do not blame their actions but target you as an individual,” she says.

Most of the cases that officers face in this court, according to Kusemererwa, arise from numerous complaints lodged by civilians about the conduct of particular officers.
“When a civilian lodges a complaint about an officer’s conduct, Professional Standards Unit (PSU) investigates the case and summons the accused officer for interrogation and statement recording. It is such files that are handed to me and my role is to ensure the witnesses are available before the trial begins. I do not sit and frame charges against officers,” Kusemererwa explains.

She says 90 per cent of her prosecutions have been successful and she attributes this to legal knowledge acquired from Makerere University and Law Development Centre (LDC) before she joined the Police Force in 2004. Kusemererwa has been an investigator since she completed her police training in 2005 and has successfully investigated rape, defilement, and corruption cases.

“I am a lawyer with police knowledge. When I am investigating you, I apply Police and legal skills plus the experience acquired as an investigator over the years. I cannot submit a file which I know will not succeed during trial,” she says.

The worst case she has investigated was the torture of Kamwenge Mayor, Godfrey Byamukama, last year because it involved senior officers attached to sensitive violent crime units like Special Operations Unit (SOU). “It was not easy to apprehend the officers because of their rank. Though there were attempts to shield them, I got support from Police management and they were arrested. Their case is still in court,” Kusemererwa notes.

For the 13 years Kusemererwa has been a detective, she says she had been trailed several times on motorcycles and strange people have often camped outside her office in broad daylight.
“I was walking to a mobile money outlet outside my office at Kibuli and I saw a Bodaboda man who had parked outside my office trailing me. I looked at him and he noticed that I had become suspicious about him. He rode off at a break neck speed,” Kusemererwa recalls.

Kusemererwa says her mother who was a public servant encouraged her to join public service because of job security and privileges that come with it. She recalls that the police training was tough and challenging because she was separated from her siblings yet she was the bread winner after the demise of their mother, who passed on while in her final year at Makerere University.

“I will not lie that the training was smooth. We trained at Butyaba Military School but the training was tough, strenuous and exhausting. If I had had a chance to escape I would have. I often felt guilty for abandoning my siblings because I did not hear from them until the end of the course which lasted for one year. But I am happy that the decision I took enabled me to educate them,” she observes.

When she completed the course, she was posted as Investigations Officer at general crimes unit at CID headquarters working under the supervision of Commissioner now AIGP Elizabeth Kutesa currently at Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. In 2008, she was transferred to Entebbe Airport as OC CID at Aviation Police and was a year later moved to the Inspectorate of General Government (IGG) as head of CID until 2016 when she returned to CID headquarters at Kibuli to head general crimes desk.

Kusemererwa, a mother of two, says her assignments often meant spending weeks and sometimes months without her family. But she ensures her family members do not feel her absence by calling and speaking to them at least thrice a day. “When I was at the IGG desk, I would spend days in the field investigating corruption cases. Sometimes I go abroad for training but I keep in touch with my family. There should be no excuse for not communicating with your family,” she emphasises.

Timeline
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Katherine Kusemererwa, was born on October 7, 1976 at Kasina village, in Kyenjojo District. She is the third born in a family of nine children. She sat for her Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) in 1989 at Muslim Girls where Namayiba Bus Park sits now. She completed her O’ and A’ levels at Gayaza High School and Trinity College Nabbingo in 1993 and 1996 respectively. Kusemererwa joined Makerere in 1997 and graduated in 2000 with LLB and later pursued a Diploma in legal practice at LDC. She worked as legal officer for a security company.