How Zombo residents helped police arrest village raiders
What you need to know:
- Raid. Dozens of men armed with sticks, machetes as well as bows and arrows stormed Angaba Lower Village in Zombo District on August 15, 2015 and caused untold mayhem.
Kampala.
At around 11:30am, when nearly all residents of Angaba Lower village in Zombo District were tilling their gardens, they had people rushing into the village blowing horns and making war chants. It was a sudden raid.
Dozens of men armed with sticks, machetes as well as bows and arrows descended on Angaba Lower village in Zombo District on August 15, 2015.
The tiny village was occupied by a handful of destitute families that depended on subsistence farming, growing a few acres of cereal crops and rearing less than a dozen animals.
The raiders swept through the village destroying everything in their path.
Villagers took to their heels before they could have an interface with them. Children and their parents squeezed into the tiniest of nooks and kept quiet to avoid being detected by the ruthless men.
Outnumbered, the villagers watched as their houses were being torched and animals untied from their backyards and taken away.
Mothers couldn’t tell where the children were and fathers abandoned their families to save their souls. Their only hope was police whom they had alerted about the raid.
It was until the raiders had left the village that the villagers got out of their hideouts to nurse their injuries and count their losses. The injured were many. The losses were enormous.
Police arrive
Police officers finally arrived at the scene not to prevent crime but to investigate the offences committed.
But first, they had to rescue Charles Warom who had been shot with an arrow that had struck him in the chest. Maureen Afworoth too needed medical attention. Afworoth had been cut in the abdomen and she was bleeding profusely. Houses of more than 10 residents had been torched.
Warom told police the raid could have been caused by a land wrangle with their neighbours. Police detectives started investigations by recording statements of the victims. They got a dozen or more statements.
Warom told police officers the raiders were led by three people who were bare-chested.
“One of them, Naal, shot several arrows at me and one hit me in the chest,” he told the investigators.
The investigators’ task was to look for Naal in the neighbouring village.
Afworot, in her statement to the police, said at the time of the raid she didn’t run since she was carrying a baby.
She told police a man, whom she had never seen before, swung a machete in the direction of her face, but he was restrained by his colleague.
Nevertheless he made another swing at her and the machete cut her in the lower abdomen inflicting serious injuries. Wilson Ocan said his six goats and other animals were robbed by the raiders.
Ocan said he saw Jimmy Omirambe and Manuel Oyeny taking away his animals. He said he knew the two suspects after meeting them several times in the neighbouring trading centre.
Arrests made
Police raided the trading centre and arrested Omirambe, Oyeny and others. They were paraded before the victims to point out those who attacked them.
Afworot pointed out David Omirambe as the man who hacked her.
Morris Jawiambe too said he saw Omirambe hacking Afworot.
Jawiambe said Omirambe even gathered clothes left on the grass to dry and threw them in the torched houses. Police immediately detained him.
Omirambe, Oyeny and D. Omirambe denied any involvement in the raid.
Omirambe said at the time the raid happened, he had gone for prayers so he couldn’t have been in two places at the same time. Oyeny told police he got to know about a raid in the evening when he was arrested since he sent whole the day in the forest burning charcoal.
D. Omirambe said he was arrested because he was new to the area. Asked what he was doing in the area, he said he had gone to inspect a plot of land that had been given to his sister-in-law.
He said he was unaware of the land wrangles in the area.
The residents could only identify three suspects. The rest were later set free after evidence against them didn’t add up.
Police officers slapped two counts of aggravated robbery and nine counts of arson against the three suspects. The charges were confirmed by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Suspects remanded
In August 2015, the trio were taken to court on the same charges and remanded. Being capital offences, their trial was heard in the High Court.
The State prosecutor brought several witnesses who pinned the suspects. They maintained the same defence and told police that they were at different spots far away from the crime scene.
On January 16, 2017, Judge Stephen Mubiru convicted them on one count of aggravated robbery and five counts of arson. The three will spend 28 years in jail.
The judgment
J. Omirambe is 34 years old, Oyeny is 49 years old while D. Omirambe is 27 years old. Both J. Omirambe and D. Omirambe are relatively young persons capable of reform. Oyeny is very weak and suffers from a swollen back and knee. D. Omirambe suffers from chest pain.
They all deserve lenience. In their respective pleas, J. Omirambe prayed for a lenient sentence while Oyeny and D. Omirambe maintained their innocence.
I have considered the fact that a deadly weapon was used, the offence involved some level of pre-meditation or planning and there was gratuitous degradation of both victims which included cutting Afworot with a panga and shooting Warom with an arrow.
These circumstances are sufficiently grave to warrant a deterrent custodial sentence. It is for these reasons that I have considered a starting point of 35 years imprisonment.
The seriousness of this offence is mitigated by a number of factors; the fact that all the convicts are first offenders, two of whom J. Omirambe and D. Omirambe are relatively young persons at the age of 34 years and 27 years respectively, still capable of reforming and becoming useful members of society.
They all have children and families to look after. The severity of the sentence they deserve has been tempered by those mitigating factors and is reduced from the period of 35 years, proposed after taking into account the aggravating factors, to a term of imprisonment of 29 years.
This in my view is comparable to sentences passed in similar circumstances.
I hereby take into account and set off one year and six months as the period the convicts have already spent on remand. I, therefore, sentence the accused to a term of imprisonment of 28 years and six months, in respect of count 1 and to a term of imprisonment of 28 years and six months, in respect of count
2.In the instant case, the convicts set multiple houses on fire for which reason they were convicted in respect of counts 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9. Having considered both the aggravating and mitigating factors already adverted to above, I consider a sentence of five years imprisonment to be appropriate punishment. Each of the accused is sentenced to a sentence of five years imprisonment in respect of counts 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9. In the final result, for the avoidance of doubt, I sentence the convicts to the following terms of imprisonment;
Count 1: Aggravated Robbery: All the three were sentenced to 28 years.
Count 2: Aggravated Robbery: All the three were sentenced to 28 years.
Count 4: Arson: All the three were sentenced to five years.
Count 5: Arson: All the three were sentenced to five years.
Count 6: Arson: All the three were sentenced to five years.
Count 7: Arson: All the three were sentenced to five years.
Count 9: Arson: All the three were sentenced to five years.
All the sentences in respect of counts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 listed above are to run concurrently. Each of the convict is to compensate Ocan Shs200,000 within a period of three months from the date of this judgment in default whereof any of the defaulting convicts is to serve an additional sentence of one year’s imprisonment. The convicts are advised that they have a right of appeal against both conviction and sentence within a period of 14 days.
Sentence
Police officers slapped two counts of aggravated robbery and nine counts of arson against the three suspects. The charges were confirmed by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
In August 2015, the trio were taken to court on the same charges and remanded. Being capital offences, their trial was heard in the High Court. The State prosecutor brought several witnesses who pinned the suspects.
They maintained the same defence and told police that they were at different spots far away from the crime scene. On January 16, 2017, Judge Stephen Mubiru convicted them on one count of aggravated robbery and five counts of arson. The three will spend 28 years in jail each.