Policemen kidnap Mulago dentist, steal his money

Three police officers attached to Wandegeya Police Station are under detention and a former operative of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence is wanted over kidnapping a dentist and conning him of his money.

Dr Keneth Majoku, a dentist at Mulago hospital, was kidnapped on December 20 in Mulago and lost a total of Shs5.4m to his captors. He told Sunday Monitor on Wednesday that he was kidnapped from Mulago Staff Road after being called by a police officer attached to Mulago hospital Police Post to help him treat his patient.
“I did not suspect anything, we kept communicating on phone until I reached the Mulago Paramedical School, where I found three men in a car and one of them beckoned me. When I reached the vehicle, I asked for the patient to see him,” Dr Majoku narrates.

However, instead of showing the doctor the patient, another man came from across the road and pushed him into the silver grey Toyota Premio.
“After pushing me into the car, they took my wallet, Shs2.5m and $400 (about Shs1.4m) and my phone,” Dr Majoku says. That was the start of an ordeal that lasted more than five hours.
“I asked the officer who called me what the problem was and they instead drove me to Wandegeya Police Station where the grilling started,” he says.

Dr Majoku says at Wandegeya Police Station, the officers told him he was facing officers from “Inter Security Agency”.
“They asked me whether I knew Martin Kenyi and his sons. They said Martin Kenyi was a rebel collaborator in South Sudan to whom I was supplying drugs,” he says as his eyes well up.
Dr Majoku’s captors also told him that he had bought “the rebel collaborators” 80 acres of land in Bweyale in Kiryandongo District and two tractors.

At Wandegeya Police Station
Inside Wandegeya Police Station, the three policemen, Detective Assistant Superintendent of Police (D/ASP) Francis Odongo, Detective Constable Medald Ninsima and Detective Constable William Basoga, now under arrest, claimed that Dr Majoku’s name was on the list of persons wanted by the South Sudan government.
“They told me I would not see my family again. All this time, I was just crying and telling them that I was innocent, but they could not listen. They would leave me in the room alone and go in the corridors to confer among themselves before returning,” Dr Majoku narrates.
According to them, Dr Majoku’s case was high profile and that they would detain him and hand him over to the South Sudan Government unless he gave them Shs7m.

Dr Majoku said when the trio had walked out of the room, he took his phone from the table and called his cousin, Dr Daniel Drichi, who works with Unicef in South Sudan’s Western Equatorial province but was in Uganda at the time.

“I told him I was being held at Wandegeya (and) he should come. My cousin came and demanded to know why they were holding me,” Dr Majoku says.
They told Dr Drichi that his relative was supplying drugs to a one Martin Kenyi and that he had accumulated money and bought land and tractors for his sons.
“The trio did not allow me to speak to Dr Majoku, who at the time, was in tears and he negotiated with the policemen before giving them Shs400,000. We negotiated until they agreed that I pay them an extra Shs1.1m. I called my wife and she brought the money,” Dr Drichi says.

Dr Drichi says before his wife would bring the money, his cousin’s captors received a phone call and they went to a guest house in Wandegeya, taking Dr Majoku with them. At the guest house, they arrested two men who they found drinking.
“They ransacked them and took their phones before walking out of the place; leaving a policeman to guard Dr Majoku and me,” Dr Drichi said.
The policemen later returned and when they were given the Shs1.1m, they walked away, leaving their ‘suspect’, Dr Majoku, behind.

Reporting the case

The conman. After being released, the two doctors later established that Alfred Guma, one of the captors, had long been dismissed from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and was a conman in town. Dr Majoku later reported the case to the Professional Standards Unit (PSU) of the police in Naguru.
Officers arrested. Mr Good Mwesigwa, who was this week removed from the position of commandant of PSU after just weeks in charge, confirmed that three police officers had been arrested over the matter and the former CMI operative, Guma is wanted over the same matter. Mr Mwesigwa said the policemen will be charged with robbery, kidnap and demanding a ransom.

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