Magara murder raises critical questions

RIP. Susan Magara. COURTESY PHOTO

The gruesome kidnap and murder of Susan Magara is nerve-wrecking. It leaves a grim picture that nobody is safe. The killers seem to have mastered their trickery and mocked our security agencies. That Magara could be kidnapped in the capital Kampala and taken captive for 20 days until she was murdered in cold blood without security agencies having a clue where the killers were, is very worrying.
The kidnappers were using 17 phone SIM cards throughout the hostage period to demand a ransom from the family, but these SIM cards cannot be traced to any of the kidnappers. The preliminary information says the SIM cards seem to have been registered under pseudo names. However, again this triggers queries about the country’s security system. Security is not just for the safety of the State, but for every citizen and person resident in this country.
Last year, after the killing of former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi, the government and Uganda Communications Commission announced mandatory registration of persons for National Identity cards, which would be the basis for registering mobile phone lines.
The UCC stated emphatically that all unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated and no new one would be entered on any cellular phone network without such registration. Government said the purpose was to fight crime because most criminals were using mobile phones to execute their evil schemes.
However, Magara’s tragic murder, has exposed this as a farce. But it also raises issues that might be of interest to the security. The telecommunication companies that issued those SIM cards have some questions to answer.
How were these SIM cards activated or allowed on their network if they were not properly registered using National IDs? If they were registered using other people’s National IDs, then the National Identification and Registration Authority (NITA) can help in the investigations.
Do the names attributed to these SM cards exist in their data bank for National IDs? If they do, such people must explain how the killers accessed their National IDs to register their phone lines in their names.
If the names on the SIM cards do not exist in the NITA data bank, it could mean the respective telecom firms are flouting the registration procedures and have continued to allow unregistered SIM cards on their network, which then makes the requirement of a National ID to register a phone line appear a sham or complete mockery.

The issue: Magara murder
Our view: That Magara could be kidnapped in the capital Kampala and taken captive for 20 days until she was murdered in cold blood without security agencies having a clue where the killers were, makes everyone worried.