Kaweesi murder: Kasingye sued over holding children

Kampala. Six senior police officers, including police spokesperson Asan Kasingye, have been sued in connection with the 12 children who were rounded up by the police in a massive arrest of suspected killers of former police spokesperson, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, before holding them in incommunicado for 51 days.
The 12 children, the youngest being one-year-old, belong to Mr Abu Rashid Mbaziira, one of the suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Kaweesi.

The other police officers sued alongside Mr Kasingye include Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima, a female police officer attached to Kireka’s Special Investigations Unit only identified as Sarah and three police officers attached to Naggalama Police Station only identified as Sam, Sharifa and Brian Nyehangane.
Also sued before Mukono High Court is the Attorney General, who is the chief legal government adviser.
The petitioners in this case include Rights Trumpet, a human rights body, Aisha Ampiire, the wife of remanded Mbaziira and Saidat Nansubuga, a mother of three out of the 12 children.

Core to the petitioners’ grievance is that the acts of the police in arresting the 12 children, violated their fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution.
They cite such human rights as the right to liberty, right to dignity, freedom from torture, inhumane and degrading treatment and the right to be cared for by their parents.

“The respondents arrested, detained and held the children incommunicado for 51 days (1,224 hours) from March 21, 2017 to May 11, 2017 and arrested and detained their mothers for six days. The respondents’ conduct was unbecoming of public officers and police officers with heightened duties to be civil,” the court documents read in part.
The children that the police allegedly rounded include: Najubu Ainembabazi, 3, Abdul Zake Jamil, 8, Anisau Nambaziira, 3, Swabula Nambazira, 1, Anne Nabura, 4, Rabiya Nanyonjo, 20, Sumaya Nambaziira, 10, Rashidah Nambaziira, 9, Abubaker Jamilu, 11, Uthman Balinda, 13, Akiram Bazuwe, 5, and Buzu Akilamu.

Through their lawyers of Niwagaba & Mwebesa Advocates, the petitioners want court to order the aforementioned police officers to jointly and, or severally pay general, aggravated and punitive damages to each of the mothers, their father, Mr Mbaziira and their children (victims) aforementioned.

Background

Former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi, his driver Godfrey Wambewo and bodyguard Kenneth Erau were gunned down in Kampala on March 17. The aftermath of the assassination of the three police officers saw a serious crackdown as police hunted for the killers.

Subsequently, the police arrested and detained Mr Mbaziira and his two wives; Ms Ampiire and Ms Fatumah Bint Salim before returning the following day to also round up their children and drove them away in a van.
Police initially denied being in custody of the 12 children, but the immense pressure from the media and human rights organisations saw them reluctantly released from incarceration.

Prior to the release of the 12 children, the wives of Mr Mbaziira in an exclusive interview with NTV Uganda, a sister station to this newspaper, said when they sought information of the whereabouts of their children at Naggalama Police Station, the officers allegedly asked them to forget about their missing children before advising them to go and marry other men and produce other children.

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