The serial killer who did not spare his inmates

Richard Arinaitwe is somewhere incarcerated in a prison within a prison at Luzira Maximum Security Prison ( Upper prison) for the murder he committed more than 15 years ago.
Police at the Central Police Station (CPS) were first alerted to a murder in Hotel Equatoria in Kampala on July 28, 1998 at 11pm. The hotel has since been transformed into a shopping mall.

The hotel staff had tried to put through an urgent phone call to the deceased but the phone was not ringing. They decided to physically check out the room, only to find the occupant lying in a pool of blood, dead.
The victim, an American volunteer Cecilia Maria Goetz, had been in the country to follow the utilisation of the HIV/Aids funds in Uganda and more specifically in Rakai District where the scourge had wiped out entire families.

On return to Hotel Equatoria, Goetz picked her key from the reception and proceeded to her room.

Trailing Goetz
All this time, Arinaitwe, who usually frequented the hotel, was seated in the lounge looking at her. He immediately followed her up stairs to her room and knocked at the door. He duped the elderly woman with ‘ROOM SERVICE’ and she opened.

Unknown to the American that it was a killer’s knock, she opened the door but on seeing a man with a heavily built body frame, she tried to push back the door and lock; but was soon overpowered.

In the struggle, Goetz broke the key and tried to reach for the desk phone to alert reception but it also slipped out of her grip.

It is not clear whether Goetz even raised an alarm or not.
With little help, Arinaitwe repeatedly stabbed her more than 30 times in the chest with a jack knife in an act that to date is still a puzzle to police officers.

Unknown to Arinaitwe, a sheath for his knife slipped and fell in the room and was later to be a major clue in linking him to the scene of the murder.

Arinaitwe also took off with the woman’s laptop. Shortly, thereafter, another room in the same hotel, which housed a Kenyan national was broken into. This time round, Arinaitwe got some dollars and Kenyan Shillings.

When police arrived at the scene, there was nothing much to do, they locked up the room until the next day when they returned to pick forensic evidence.

From the onset, police concluded that this was the work of a lone operator.
Police recovered blood stained sheets that were taken for DNA tests. It turned out that there were two blood samples one from the American woman and the suspect.

Arinaitwe bad days
By sheer lack, one month later, Entebbe Police Station was reporting a robbery in a room at Lake Victoria Hotel in Entebbe. The room occupant had been attacked by someone. When he raised an alarm the person jumped throw the window, and drove away in a vehicle that had been parked at the hotel.

However, the room occupant managed to identify the vehicle registration number. After searching from Uganda Revenue Authority, the license plate was traced to a man who worked with Uganda Commercial Bank main branch.
When approached by police, the vehicle owner described someone who had hired his car for self-drive that day. It was a well-built young man who lived with his parents in Kololo, a city upscale residential area.

Entebbe police reported to CPS Kampala and later proceeded to Kololo where they found Arinaitwe hiding in his parents’ family house ceiling.

He tried to resist arrest but was later overpowered and handcuffed. Police searched the ceiling and recovered two pistols and a jack knife.

The knife had an inscription “Sky pie”. Arinaitwe was then brought and locked up at CPS Kampala, where even the recovered items were exhibited.

On examining the knife, an officer at CPS discovered the name was very similar to the one on the sheath that had been left by an assailant in the murder of the American volunteer at Hotel Equatoria.

Police tried to fit the jack knife into the sheath and it fitted well. So it was concluded that this must be the same suspect in the Hotel Equatoria murder.

Investigators asked that Arinaitwe is brought from the cells for interrogation and he confessed to the murder which he said had been executed by a Lebanese national. He told police how he had with ease managed to dupe the American to open her room by claiming ‘ROOM SERVICE’ but declined to state the motive of the murder.

However, police failed to recover the American woman’s laptop. Arinaitwe claimed that the Lebanese national had promised to take him out of the country.

It is then that Arinaitwe’s blood sample was taken for tests and the tests later corresponded with the blood group that was lifted from the bed sheets police had recovered from the American woman’s room at Hotel Equatoria.

Evidence
On arrest, Arinaitwe had also been found with a healing wound on his little finger which had been inflicted on him by his victim in the Hotel Equatoria attack.
So police used the blood group, the sheath and knife and the wound to bring Arinaitwe to the murder scene of the American volunteer.
After learning of his involvement, police took Arinaitwe to Buganda Road Court under Chief Magistrate Jane Elizabeth Alividza to record an extra judicial statement that is required in circumstances where the suspect is confessing to murder.

Long after the Chief Magistrate had requested that the police, including two Korean trained police officers who used to guard Arinaitwe because of his violent nature, to move away, Arinaitwe instead turned against the Chief Magistrate.

It was Alividza’s body guard, police constable Baliita, who responded to her wailing and rescued her.

Arinaitwe had grabbed a bangle from the Chief Magistrate’s hand which he straightened and tried to use to stab her and her body guard.

He was charged with the murder of the American volunteer, Goetz, and the attempted murder of then Buganda Road Chief Magistrate and now Judge Alividza, and Police Constable Baliita.
Arinaitwe is currently on death row. He was placed under solitary confinement after he turned violent on fellow inmates.

He had been a frequent visitor to Hotel Equatoria’s gymnasium. During the course investigations, police discovered that the anti-robbery squad had also had a file against him.

About Arinaitwe

• At the time of his arrest, Richard Arinaitwe was a first year Law student at Makerere University who had passed with flying colours to join university.
• Police found that as a juvenile, Richard Arinaitwe had been involved in the robbery of Speedbird forex bureaux in the Sheraton Hotel. The senior members of the gang were locked up in Luzira while Arinaitwe as a juvenile was sent to Kampiringisa for rehabilitation.
• He was also behind a spate of theft at Rugby clubs around Lugogo, often stealing money from clothes left behind by Rugby players.
• There were a series of other cases that had been linked to him but were not reported to police.
• When police searched his room at his father’s house in Kololo, they discovered a string of crime novels among which were James Hardly Chase, James Bond films among others. Police watched the movies to try and read into Richard Arinaitwe’s mind and found them to be horrific.
• Police also recovered a calendar from Richard Arinaitwe’s room and found that on July 28, 1998 the day the Cecilia Maria Goetz was murdered and drew a picture of a skull and two bones crossing similar to the one usually seen on electricity poles and marked it ‘Kabi Danger Hatari.’

Kills American volunteer

An American volunteer Cecilia Maria Goetz had been in the country to follow the utilisation of the HIV/Aids funds in Rakai District. On return to Hotel Equatoria, Goetz picked her key from the reception and proceeded to her room. All this time, Arinaitwe, who usually frequented the hotel, was seated in the lounge looking at her. He immediately followed her up stairs and killed her in the room

Turns against magistrate

Police had taken Arinaitwe to Buganda Road Court under Chief Magistrate Jane Elizabeth Alividza to record an extra judicial statement. However, when the police moved away, Arinaitwe waited a little while before grabbing the magistrate’s bangle and attempted to stab her using it. It was only because of the help of Alivudza’s body guard that the magistrate survived the killer.

Lake Victoria Entebbe attack

One month after killing the American volunteer, Arinaitwe went out of the city to Entebbe. He camped at Lake Victoria Hotel. However, when he entered a room, the occupant raised an alarm before he was attacked. The occupant then noted the registration number of the car in which Arinaitwe, who had jumped through the window, drove in and reported the matter to police. It is through this clue that the police later traced the car to Arinaitwe, leading to his eventual arrest.

Crime in Uganda

The US government rates Uganda as “Critical” for residential crime, “Critical” for non-residential crime, and “High” for terrorism. Uganda continues to improve its security situation by focusing efforts toward combating crime and terrorism.

The Uganda Police Force (UPF) maintains heavy police deployments in metropolitan areas, namely Kampala, to thwart the criminal and terrorist activities. UPF deployment is not as heavy as during the election year of 2011, and efforts are ongoing to “right size” the deployment in Kampala in an effort to professionalize its ranks.
However, a comparative analysis of figures from various police/security entities reflects a continuation of inaccurately- or under-reported incidents of crimes.

Common crimes are generally crimes of opportunity rather than planned attacks. The types of opportunistic crimes include, but are not limited to: thefts from vehicles, thefts of property from residences, residential break-ins, strong-armed robberies, pick-pocketing, “snatch and grab” thefts, and theft from hotel rooms.
The US Embassy has also observed, and several employees experienced an increase in petty crimes in 2012. Pick-pocketing, “snatch and grab” thefts (including from occupied and unoccupied vehicles), and vehicle vandalism along with other petty and opportunistic crimes were the primary types of activities observed in Kampala.

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