How duo who killed colleague, stole his cars on way from S. Africa were nabbed

Charles Semakula, then based in South Africa, called his brother-in law based in Kampala, Godfrey Kyeyune, to inform him that he would be travelling back to Uganda from South Africa by road through Tanzania.
Semakula informed Kyeyune that he would bring along two vehicles, a Toyota Premio and an Isuzu Canter.
While in South Africa, Semakula had met two Ugandans – Jogo from Jinja District and Martin Kiwanuka from Kawempe, a Kampala suburb.
The trio was to use different routes out of South Africa but link up in Zambia before crossing into Tanzania and enter Uganda through the Mutukula border. One of Semakula’s friends would help him drive one of the vehicles, Semakula told his in-law.

After informing his brother in-law about his itinerary, Semakula left South Africa. He kept in touch with his family along the way, but contact broke off after Semakula reached Zambia. Thinking it was an issue of a faulty battery, Kyeyune waited in anticipation hoping that his brother in-law would reach home within two days.
Although Kyeyune remembers Semakula telling him the names of the people he was travelling with, he never cared to take down the details. All he knew was that his brother in-law was travelling with a Musoga from Jinja and a Muganda from Kawempe.

On the third day without hearing from Semakula, Kyeyune knew something was wrong because Semakula’s phone remained off. He reported the matter to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) in Kampala with the hope that they would help trace Semakula.
But since the process of tracing involved another country, he thought it wise to involve the Uganda Police Force, which he did at the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate in Kibuli, Kampala. A detective was directed to mount a hunt for Semakula.
But since the detective was taking instructions from his boss, he thought it rude to ask for the identities of the people he was supposed to work with on this case.

He would later find out that some of the people involved were soldiers from CMI. “Instead of letting me investigate they were issuing orders for me to follow,” the detective says.
“This was a case that required utmost professionalism to get information on the whereabouts of Semakula. But with soldiers in tow, there was a probability this case might be spoilt by self-seekers, especially now that the soldiers knew Semakula was travelling with money,” the detective, who did not want to be named, adds.

The information Kyeyune provided to the police was that Semakula was supposed to drive the Toyota Premio while his friend, “a Muganda man from Kawempe”, was supposed to drive his Canter. They were supposed to use different routes and link up in Zambia.
With no phone contact to help in the tracking, the detective had to use ingenuity to track down Semakula. He had either to investigate following the route Semakula took from South Africa to Uganda, or investigate backwards from Uganda to South Africa.

Investigations
“I realised that tracing by route may be hard, so I decided to follow the cars to establish whether the cars had entered Uganda. My next destination was Mutukula border, and on reaching there I established that indeed a Toyota Premio and Canter had been cleared in the names of Semakula by two people, among who was the owner of a BMW, one Jogo,” the detective says. They reported that the BMW got an accident and had been loaded onto the Canter.
It was established that the duo had used Semakula’s passport to clear the vehicles into Uganda.
Using an address left at Mutukula border, the detective found out that Martin Kiwanuka from Kawempe was the one who was driving the Isuzu Canter.
Kiwanuka was tracked down and arrested and he led the detectives to Maganjo at the northern outskirts of Kampala, where he had dropped Jogo off at his brother’s home.
The brother offered that the following day he would take the detectives to their home in Jinja, where Jogo had gone.
The detectives arrested Jogo and he started trading accusations with Kiwanuka, each saying the other killed Semakula.

Jogo led the police to his home, from where they recovered Semakula’s passport, two passports of Ugandan children based in South Africa that he had brought along for renewal, and a blood-stained yellow raincoat.
The duo were brought to Kampala and kept in separate places. CMI operatives tried to get them to confess to no avail.
The police later brought them in one place and questioned them about the whereabouts of Semakula.

“After a long barrage of accusations with none telling us what had happened, Jogo broke down and confessed,” the detective says.
According to Jogo’s statement, he and Semakula had agreed to travel home together with Kiwanuka. Kiwanuka was supposed to help Semakula drive the Isuzu Canter while Semakula drove the Toyota Premio. Jogo told the police how Semakula had been drinking.
Jogo said after entering Zambia, his car, a BMW, was involved in an accident and could no longer move, so they loaded it on the Canter, leaving Kiwanuka and Jogo to drive in the Isuzu Canter as Semakula followed them in the Premio.
It’s then that the two hatched a plan to kill Semakula and take the two cars.

“When they reached a forest between Morogoro and Dodoma at night, they stopped. Kiwanuka pretended that the Isuzu Canter had developed a mechanical problem. Kiwanuka gave Semakula a torch to help him light. Since Semakula was drunk he did not realise what the two were up to. As Semakula bent to provide light for Kiwanuka, who was pretending to fix the Canter, Jogo used a metallic bar to hit Semakula on the head,” the detective says.
Semakula was too drunk to fight back. He fell into a heap and the duo finished him off.

“Kiwanuka then entered into the Canter, reversed, ran over Semakula’s head and drove over it again smashing it completely,” narrates the detective.

The duo then carried Semakula’s body and threw it in the forest before continuing on their way to Uganda.
On establishing the case had turned from disappearance to murder, the detective sought the advice of his bosses on how to proceed. He was advised to hand over the file to the department that handles homicides but his immediate supervisors rejected the advice, saying it would lead to loss of information.

“If you have handled a case it is only proper that you continue with the investigations for consistence, but some people on seeing money, started creating excuses to take away the case,” the detective says.
“There was need to travel to the scene of crime and we requested for money from the police, but when some people realised dollars had been released, they turned on the heat, questioning how I could handle homicide cases yet I did not belong to that department.”

Due to pressure the detective was forced to hand over the case to his colleagues in the Homicide department but they too never travelled to carry out investigations in Tanzania.
“We had established what we wanted. The relatives travelled to Tanzania and worked with the police in Morogoro, who had recovered the body, and brought it home for burial,” the detective says.
Before the body was buried, it was taken to Mulago hospital for postmortem. Blood samples were extracted and taken to the government analytical laboratory.

They matched the blood samples the police found on the deceased’s yellow raincoat that had been recovered from Jogo’s house in Jinja.
During interrogation, the police established that the Isuzu Canter had been sold to Uganda Modernity, a car bond on Old Port Bell road in Kampala, who in turn had sold it to a businessman from Mbarara District. The police recovered the Isuzu Canter. The Toyota Premio was recovered from Kiwanuka while he was trying to sell it.
Jogo later claimed that he had been misled by Kiwanuka to kill Semakula.
According to Jogo, Kiwanuka was motivated by jealousy and greed to kill and take Semakula’s two cars.

Kiwanuka was returning home with only a music system and felt he would be looked down upon by his relatives for spending a long time in South Africa and only returning with a music system.
“The passport of the deceased, the two children’s passports and the yellow raincoat placed Jogo at the scene of crime,” the detective says.
“After killing him, they removed his documents and used it to clear the vehicles at the Mutukula border,” the detective says. “At the border they did not need to show the vehicles; all that was needed was the paperwork (which was in Semakula’s name).”

According to the detective, customs officials sometimes clear such vehicles with the connivance of clearing agents.
The two vehicles (a Toyota Premio and Isuzu Canter) were recovered and exhibited at police and later handed over to Semakula’s relatives.
Jogo and Kiwanuka were tried and convicted for murder, earning life sentences for the crime.

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