26 arrested, Kayihura city house searched

What you need to know:

  • Swoop. Key arrests effected in the last five days is that of Gen Kayihura, who was picked up from his country farm in Lyantonde District on Wednesday.

A t least 26 people, including police and military officers, have been arrested as investigators cast wide the dragnet to catch suspects involved in criminal activities during the 12 odd years of Gen Kale Kayihura as head of the police force.
Among key arrests effected in the last five days is that of Gen Kayihura, who was picked up from his country farm in Lyantonde District on Wednesday.
Already, several senior police and other officials have spent months in military detention since a crackdown on suspected rogue officials in the police started last year.
Some of those already picked up and charged are Boda Boda 2010 patron Abdullah Kitatta, Senior Commissioner of Police Joel Aguma, and Senior Superintendent of Police Nickson Agasirwe.
Sources say the ongoing crackdown might also extend to civilians who have worked closely with the arrested officers to commit crimes being investigated by the military intelligence.
Allegations of espionage, murder, brutality, kidnapping and theft have dogged the group whose arrests, Sunday Monitor understands is being carried out by the military and a select team of investigators drawn from police and other security agencies.

Kayihura house searched
On Friday, investigators led Gen Kayihura to his home in Muyenga in Kampala, where this newspaper understands a search was conducted for hours in the presence of the embattled former police chief.
It was not clear by press time whether any useful information was obtained by detectives to support their line of inquiry, which has so far been kept away from the public.
“Reference to our last statement, we said we shall keep the country informed as and when we deem it necessary,” Ministry of Defence and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesperson Brig Richard Karemire said when contacted to comment on the incidents.
Sunday Monitor also understands that known residences of Gen Kayihura, including his Muyenga home, have since been designated “crime scenes”, with entry restricted to only authorised personnel. His immediate family members, including his wife, sources say, were taken to an undisclosed location, reportedly a hotel, to allow for smooth investigations.
Sources also say Gen Kayihura is being detained alone in a house inside Makindye barracks on the outskirts of Kampala, furnished by the army only days to his arrest.

New arrests
The latest arrest was carried out by military intelligence on Thursday night as intelligence officials picked up Lt Col Peter Musherure, the former deputy police director of crime intelligence.
Col Musherure joins in Makindye military police cells, Assistant Commissioners of Police Jonathan Baroza, a former aide to Gen Kayihura, and Herbert Muhangi, the former police’s Flying Squad Unit commander.
The other arrested officers also detained in Makindye military barracks are Senior Superintendent of Police and former cyber-crime head Richard Ndaboine, and former crime intelligence director Col Ndahura Atwooki.
The officers and others, some already charged, were arrested in connection with espionage, killings, and organised crime in the country. Some of the officers are said to have amassed wealth through dubious ways, including reportedly running hit squads that were torturing and blackmailing people for money and other assets.
Sources also say Lt Col Musherure, who was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in March, was arrested over allegations of organised crime and espionage.
Lt Col Musherure was deputy to Col Ndahura.
The sources also claimed the crime intelligence was working closely with a neighbouring country to do espionage.
After Gen Kayihura was dropped as IGP, Lt Col Musherure and Col Ndahura were ordered to return to the army.
Lt Col Musherure was set to be sent for a military course before his arrest.
He had had also previously worked with Gen Kayihura in the late 1990s and early 2000 when the former IGP commanded the Special Revenue Protection Service, an anti-smuggling unit.
Yesterday, the government-owned Saturday Vision reported that former Kampala Metropolitan police commander Frank Mwesigwa, had been arrested by military intelligence in the ongoing crackdown.
But Mr Mwesigwa, a Commissioner of Police, who currently heads the Tourism police, dismissed the allegations in an interview with our reporter and in a subsequent tweet.
“I am neither in hiding nor under any arrest as rumoured on social media platforms and page 3 of today’s New Vision,” he tweeted.
However, the officer in trouble, for now, Sunday Monitor has established, is Senior Commissioner of Police Good Mwesigwa, who was arrested by military intelligence.
In January, Mr Mwesigwa was fired by Gen Kayihura only three weeks into his appointment as commandant of the police’s Professional Standards Unit.
In the lead up to Mr Mwesigwa’s sacking, there had been allegations that he and others were involved in selling and hiring out guns to criminals and that some suspects detained at police’s high security detention centre at Nalufenya in Jinja had implicated him.
Mr Mwesigwa had been appointed the commandant of PSU to replace Mr Aguma, who remains incarcerated at Makindye military prison on allegations of kidnapping Rwandan refugees and handing them over to the Rwandan government. One of those kidnapped in 2013 was Lt Joel Mutabazi, a former bodyguard of the Rwandan leader Paul Kagame.

Detained or charged army/police officers
Gen Kale Kayihura
SC P Good Mwesigwa
SCP Joel Aguma
Col Ndahura Atwooki
Lt Col Peter Musherure
ACP Jonathan Baroza
ACP Herbert Muhangi
SSP Richard Ndaboine
SSP Nickson Agasirwe
Sgt Abel Tumukunde
ASP James Magada
PC Faisal Katende (Flying Squad)
PC Abel Kitagenda aka Abbas Muyomba
Civilians
Abdallah Kitatta
Sowali Ngobi
Amon Twinomujuni
Joel Kibirige,
Matia Ssenfuka
Hassan Ssebata
John Kayondo
Hassan Ssengooba
Sunday Ssemogerere
John Ssebandeke
Hussein Mugema
Fred Bwanika
Ibrahim Ssekajja