Act faster on missing prosecutor incident

A day after the Principal State Attorney, Ms Fatuma Nabiwemba Sendagire, went missing from her matrimonial home in Wapewo-Gayaza, Wakiso District, a case of a missing person was reported to Kasangati Police Station by her husband, Dr Ibrahim Sendagire.
The missing prosecutor sent a short phone text message to her brother on December 13, to tell her husband that she is fine where she is but needs to be alone to grieve the loss of her two-and-a-half old baby girl.

Basing on this positive response that came along with some relief to her husband and her immediate family, the police took a back seat and did not make any effort to trace Ms Sendagire thinking she was in safe hands.
But after a month without Ms Sendagire being seen coupled with her cell phone number being switched off, police panicked and sent out its Flying Squad Unit officers to mount a search for the missing prosecutor.

As mandated by the Constitution, to among others, keep law and order, the police should have on the first day swung into action to look for her.
They could have tracked and trailed her using a phone since she used one of her cell phones to communicate with her brother.
Since the missing prosecutor was facing post-natal depression, according to her husband, it was prudent and incumbent upon the police to secure her safety first, which was not done.

It’s now more than a month since she was last seen by her family and friends. It will take more time and resources to trace for this woman and yet there were high chances that she could have been found and the anxiety that has since come along with her disappearance, would have been avoided.
Given the current wave of murders meted against women, who knows, Ms Sendagire could have fallen victim, which could have been preventable if the police had acted fast.

Statistics from the Criminal Investigations Department-CID show that more than 376 cases of missing persons were reported in 2015.
The statistics further show that of these, only 57 cases were closed after the victims were found alive or dead.
The police say priority is given to cases involving vulnerable persons such as children and adults believed to have been abducted.
Some of these incidents could be avoided if the police acted as mandated by the Constitution.