Unmasking Asiimwe: Key suspect in Magara murder

The key suspect, Ronald Asiimwe a.k.a Kanyankore, in the murder of Susan Magara has been in and out of prison on similar crimes in the past, but what is more puzzling is how he would be released and work with police.
Magara was kidnapped on February 7 and her body was later recovered at Kitiko off Entebbe road on February 27.

This is not the first time Kanyankore, now under military custody, has been arrested over murder and robbery. He has a trail of criminal history.
On November 2, 2010, Daily Monitor published a story about the arrest of Kanyankore and seven others and their appearance in court on several murders and robberies in Kampala.
Kanyankore was arrested on October 3, 2010 over murder of several special hire taxi drivers before robbing them of their vehicles.

He was arrested along with Robert Kazahura, a resident of Nakigalala, Charles Yiga, a resident of Kitebi, Abdalla Ssenfuka, a resident of Namungoona-Lubya, Francis Abiku from Nansana-Nabweru and Edward Bagalagaza from Bulenga.
They were detained at Nalumunye, Kajjansi and Katwe police stations and later taken to Kireka police base for further interrogation.

During interrogation, Kanyankore, Kazahura and Iga reportedly admitted to murder and robbery. When they were paraded to the press before they were taken to court, they repeated the “confessions” to murder and robbery.
They narrated how they had murdered a number of special hire taxi drivers in Kampala. Kanyankore and the gang leader Kazahura told police that their victims were people known to them – in fact their friends.

At the time, Kazahura and Kanyankore revealed they killed all their victims because they were their friends who would report them if they left them alive.
Police at the time recovered a number of vehicles: UAL 330D, UAL 330D, UAL 760V, UAM 576Z and UAN 434F. A Toyota Hiace Super Custom UAM 524U and a Toyota Corona UAE 935P were also recovered during the operation. None of the drivers of those vehicles survived Asiimwe’s gang- all were killed.
Police at Mirama Hills border with Rwanda opened a case which was transferred to Jinja Road Police Station in Kampala.

Kanyankore and his co-accused were paraded before the press on October 18, 2010.
Kanyankore told the police Rapid Response Unit in rather shocking detail how he, Kazahura and Iga killed a one Raymond Mugagga Nkata, a special hire taxi driver in Najjanankumbi.

“I was also working at Najjanankumbi. I called Nkatta on telephone and told him to drive me with another person (Kazahura) to inspect land that was up for sale at Nakigalala. When he reached us, we asked him that our colleague Charles Yiga drives. He did not object,” Kanyankore told investigators.

“When we reached the farm of Naggayi Nabila (Kampala District Woman Member of Parliament), Yiga stopped the vehicle. Kazahura and I strangled him and he died instantly,” he further revealed.
Another victim was Azaria Kafuluma who had been set to wed two months later on December 12, 2010. According to the widow, Lydia Nafuna who spoke to this reporter then, Kafuluma was kidnapped on July 12, 2010 and his Toyota Ipsum car UAN 395L was stolen.

He was murdered and the body dumped in a bush at Buwama on Masaka highway. The case of Kafuluma’s murder was recorded under CRB/367/2010 at Buwama Police Station.
Kanyankore and his colleagues were later prosecuted, but somehow they were released from prison in 2015. It is not clear how he and his colleagues later left Luzira prison.

However, after their release, they started working with police until Kanyankore was rearrested over Magara’s murder about a week ago while Kazahura was rearrested last year on murder of another person and remanded to Luzira again. He is said to be in prison to-date.

Since 2015 after being released from Luzira, Kanyankore and his colleagues have been working with police as informants. Apart from murdering special hire taxi drivers, Kanyankore also confessed to being a contract killer, working for several city tycoons. In November 2016, Kanyankore went public, confessing how he had been in the past hired by city tycoons to murder at a fee. No case has ever been opened against any of the tycoons based on Kanyankore’s confession. He has also never been charged in any courts after the confession.
At the time of the public confession, he claimed to have completely abandoned his criminality and was now a reformed man. At the time he also said he was demanding about Shs500m for crime work he had accomplished for his master.
Kanyankore said his life was in danger because the people who had been hiring him to murder their adversaries were now after his life. Sources said at the time of his arrest, he was in company of officers who said he was their informant.

Kanyankore’s association with the police

The latest kidnap and murder of the Susan Magara in which Kanyankore is one of the prime suspects shows he did not reform, but continued with his criminality while he served as a police informant. It also casts suspicion on the operations of the forces mandated to protect life and property.
A number of criminal gangs like Kifesi, the Boda Boda 2010 and its leader Abdallah Kitata and other individuals, who have been have had close association with police over years, are now in detention over murders and other serious crimes.

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