Burglars break into Mbabazi's lawyers office

KAMPALA. Suspected burglars broke into the offices of two of Amama Mbabazi’s lawyers in the wee hours of Tuesday night and reportedly took off with computers and the 2016 presidential election petition case files
The offices, one on Acacia Avenue in quiet and leafy Kololo and the other on Buganda Road in Kampala, were reportedly broken into at about 3am.

However, the lawyers, Mr Muhammed Mbabazi and Mr Fred Muwema, did not personally report the incidents to the police.
It is the private guards, some from Protectorate security firm that reported the incident at Wandegeya Police Station.
Surprisingly, the police reportedly arrested the guards who had gone to report the break-in at Mr Mbabazi’s office.

Mr Mbabazi said the police should explain what exactly happened at his office.
“The police were seen to have come here. They came, they broke [in and] they took away whatever they took. So I report to whom? They should be the ones to come and tell me ‘we came in, we didn’t find you then we broke in’,” said Mr Mbabazi during a televised interview an hour ago.
At the time of filing this story, the police had not yet established the circumstances under which the office was broken into.

Mr Patrick Onyango the Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson when reached for a comment, said: “We have sent our officers to establish what exactly happened. I cannot comment on that matter before I get a report.”
According to Mr Asuman Basalirwa, another of Mr Mbabazi’s lawyers, said the team spent much of Tuesday receiving witnesses to testify for Amama Mbabazi’s petition against the election of President Museveni.
Mr Basalirwa said the team worked till late in the evening, some up to 10pm.

Through much of the day, they reportedly saw both uniformed police men alongside some plain–clothed people they suspect are security officers, lurking around.
And as some of the lawyers retired to their homes, they were trailed.
Still, Mr Basalirwa says they are not deterred.
“People can steal equipment. But they cannot steal the brains. It [the break in] is a temporary setback. [But] we will not be deterred,” Mr Basalirwa told the Daily Monitor on phone a while ago.

According to one man who claims to have witnessed the incident, about 30 people were involved in the break in.
“They were about 30. It is those who were in plain-clothes who entered; the [uniformed] police watched from the sidelines,” the man claimed.
The burglars reportedly came with a ladder, which they placed by the perimeter wall to climb over the wall.

Apparently, the private Protectorate security guards who went to Wandegeya Police Station to report the burglary were reportedly just arrested.
Journalists have now been locked out of the premises.