High profile killings trigger rush to acquire private guns

KAMPALA. Wealthy citizens, especially the business community and the corporate class, are rushing to acquire private guns as spate of high profile killings rise, according to police.
Gen Kale Kayihura, the police chief, yesterday said he is under a lot of pressure from several people to sign their applications to acquire licenced guns.
“Everyone is applying for a firearm. Many people don’t like me because I have failed to sign on their applications to get firearms,” Gen Kayihura said while meeting the business community in Kampala yesterday.
Many people, including businessmen and traders, had applied for the firearms earlier but had given up because of delays.
They are now contacting the police to know why their applications have delayed.
Several people in the business community and civil service have been shot dead in the past two years.
There has been increasing fear for personal security following the gunning down of Senior Prosecutor Joan Kagezi on Monday night. Kagezi was driving back to her home in Kiwatule, a Kampala suburb, with her children when assailants trailing her shot her dead.
Although Gen Kayihura did not tell the number of persons who applied for guns, police officers in the private security department say more than 10,000 applications for firearms have not yet been certified by the police.
The Police Act gives power to the Inspector General of Police to licence arming of any civilian basing on his or her record.
Gen Kayihura said he had been hesitant to give out licences because many of them have misused guns, including former Arua Municipality MP Akbar Godi.
Akbar, who shot his wife, Rehema Caesar dead using a licenced pistol, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Meanwhile, the government yesterday explained that the gunning down of Kagezi was a case of “organised crime” designed to intimidate the justice system.
MPs heard that, in response, a team is being set up to whip the boda boda industry into order as her attackers used a motorcycle taxis as an escape vehicle.
Internal Affairs minister Aronda Nyakairima told Parliament that security agencies have been warning the country about impending terror attacks but he fell short of shedding light on why the government could not avert the attack on its senior prosecutor.
MPs quickly punched holes in Gen Nyakairima’s, insisting that despite strenuous claims from the government that the slain attorney was provided with security, it was never the case.
MPs also said the ruling NRM party reaps political capital from the boda boda industry and lacks the will to regulate it. It has been noted that boda bodas have repeatedly been used in the recent cases of violent crime.
Referring to Kagezi’s involvement in the high profile trial of suspects in the 2010 al-Shabaab terrorist bombings, which claimed 76 lives in Kampala, and the recent murders in Busoga sub-region, Gen Nyakairima said her killers wanted “to eliminate her in order to intimidate investigators and prosecutors of such cases”.
Without delving into details, Gen Nyakairima revealed that a terror attack was averted on September 14 last year after the arrest of an unspecified number of “suicide terrorists” .
“Overt and covert operations have been intensified. All potential terrorist targets are being covered. Through such measures, the security agencies will remain on top of the situation,” he said.

PREVIOUS CASES

April 20, 2014: Sheikh Abdu Karim Ssentamu shot dead in Kampala. Aaron Madanda charged in court. Case pending.
June 22, 2012: Abasi Abubaker Kiweewa killed. Luke Balaba was arrested for his killing, charged with murder then given bail but jumped it.
Nov 1, 2012: Yunus Ababaker Madungo shot dead in Bugiri District. Five suspects charged with murder. Muzafaru Mugoya Kawule, Musa Ndabanji, Sheikh Twaha Nurdin Baligeya later jumped bail. Two other suspects Bashir Mwanda and Abdu Rashid Kalenge are on remand.
December 25, 2014: Sheikh Abdul Khadir Muwaya killed in Mayuge District, six suspects are detained.

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