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Tribute to former Monitor journalist Risdel Kasasira

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Deceased. Risdel Kasasira. Photo | File

Over ten years ago, as a young and aggressive journalist covering court, I got wind of a powerful lady, Jennifer Aryem, who was a state witness in the 2005 treason case against opposition stalwart, Dr Kizza Besigye, appearing before the Makindye Chief Magistrates Court (the civilian court).

Ms Aryem had a personal criminal case that she was battling before the same court.

I informed my then news editor, Mr Alex Atuhaire about the hot news, and off, I hastened to Makindye court.

Shortly upon reaching the court, this lady also arrived. I immediately started taking her photographs. She realized that I was taking her photographs and she called the court police to arrest me.

“This is a public place and I have a right to take your photos,” I replied to Ms Aryem when she demanded to know why I was taking her photos.

She got angrier and involved the nearest police station, which was Katwe.

I remember being bundled in her car boot and driven at a breakneck speed to Katwe Police Station, which is about one kilometer from Makindye Chief Magistrates Court for interrogation.

At this time, I knew things were not as easy as I thought, so I called my editor and updated him on what had happened to me.

He told me not to panic as he was ensuring that I was to be released as soon as possible.

The officers at Katwe Police Station forced me to record a police statement without my lawyer and also forced me to delete the pictures that I had taken of this lady before transferring me to CID headquarters in Kibuli.

The contacts that my editor had, and with the help of our senior crime reporter, Mr Andrew Bagala, I was released unconditionally from Kibuli CID after spending close to four hours in detention.

As a junior journalist, I wanted to write my own story and put my byline. This is because of the feel-good sweetness that comes with having a byline when you are a junior reporter.

But my editor said: “That is not how such stories are written. You will narrate what exactly happened to you at court and Katwe Police Station to another reporter,”

It was at this moment that Risdel Kasasira, then a fairly senior journalist, was assigned by the editor to take down my narrative.

This was the first time I came in close contact with Kasasira, who had joined Monitor a few years earlier than me. I joined the publication in 2008.

I narrated to him my ordeal, which was my first time being detained at a police station. The story ran the following day.

So, since then, we became close work colleagues and we could call each other “Ndugu”, a Kiswahili word that means comrade.

We were further brought closer when during the classification of work beats, the court beat and the crime/ security beats were merged.

He extensively reported on security matters including the Al-Shabab militants in Somalia, where he made several trips for purposes of reporting from the ground.

He earned himself the nickname “Al-Shabab”; because of his mastery of reporting on the same subject and the several media trips he made to Somalia.

When it came to phone contacts of senior government officials, the jolly Kasasira had most of them, which is a great asset for any practicing journalist since you need sources for our stories.

I remember him helping me to contact the family of the late army commander James Kazini when I was writing about the court case. He also linked me to one of the former top ministers, whose name is withheld over a certain story I was pursuing that needed to be balanced to run.

Because of his seniority in the newsroom, he would chip in as an understudy editor whenever the News Editor was away on annual leave.

When he parted ways with Monitor about five years ago, we kept in touch and he would reach out to consult on certain stories.

The recent arrest of Dr Besigye and his aide Obeid Lutale in Kenya before he was arraigned before the General Court Martial in Makindye, brought us together again physically.

Mr Kasasira had established his own online publication and was at the same time working for an international news outlet, AP (Associated Press), the reason he was covering Dr Besigye in court.

During one of Dr Besigye's recent court appearances, I recall while we waited for the prisons to bring him to court, we had a chat about his family, how he is thriving, and how his wife works with a reputable tax company in the city.

When I asked him how his daughter makes it to the city school every day for studies, he replied: “My wife first drops her at school and then she drives to work,”

He also told me how his online publication together with a couple of other journalists whom they had founded together, was doing well.

Taking you back a bit, on the first day when Dr Besigye was arraigned, given the huge numbers of people including his supporters attending the court session, he didn’t get well the particulars of the charges slapped against him.

On my way out of the court premises, he ran after me, asking me to share the copy of the charge sheet, which I did immediately and he was grateful. We parted ways since I was also rushing to the newsroom to file the story.

The last time we met was in December, still during the Besigye case. He had come in a little late since the security at the court was restricting the entry of court users including journalists.

I had not been allowed inside the court hall too and it was coming to 10am.

“Ndugu, even you, my senior in court reporting, have been locked out of the proceedings,” he joked.

So, he joined me to convince the security officers manning the entrance of the court hall, for which we were finally allowed in to cover the proceedings.

The Besigye case resumes on Tuesday and I was looking forward to meeting Kasasira again but this will not be because he is no more as the cruel hands of death snatched him following a nasty road crash last Friday. Until we meet again, rest well Ndugu.

The wreckage of the vehicle he was travelling in. Photo | Courtesy