Former CID spokesman Twiine disappears at police headquarters
Former Criminal Investigations Directorate spokesperson, Mr Charles Twiine. Photo | Courtesy
What you need to know:
- Detective Assistant Superintendent of Police Twiine was allegedly summoned at police headquarters
The former Criminal Investigations Directorate spokesperson, Mr Charles Twiine, has gone missing for three days now after he visited Police Headquarters at Naguru.
Detective Assistant Superintendent of Police Twiine was allegedly summoned at police headquarters to meet the Inspector General of Police on Wednesday, but his whereabouts are unknown since.
D/ASP Twiine’s wife, Ms Kate Kabagenyi says she visited police headquarters to find out the whereabouts of her husband, but she is being tossed around.
“Since morning, I have been at police headquarters. Each officer is telling me to talk to another. No one is giving me information where my husband is. We have evidence that he arrived and entered police headquarters. His personal car that he drove is still parked at police headquarters,” Ms Kabagenyi said on Friday.
D/ASP Twiine was deployed to the Parliament as an investigation officer.
Ms Kabagenyi said she visited Parliament and talked to the senior officers there.
“They also told me that they don’t know where he is,” she said.
She has reported a case of disappearance/missing person at Kasangati Police Station to enable the police commence investigations.
According to sources, when D/ASP Twiine arrived at police headquarters, he visited the second floor of police headquarters at Naguru where the IGP and his deputy sit.
At around midday, men in civilian clothes suspected to be members of the police sister agency escorted him out of the building. He hasn’t been seen again.
Efforts to get a comment from the police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke was futile.
According to police standing orders, the police are required to inform the next of kin of the person held in their custody or handed over to any other lawful agency and his or her whereabouts.
The detained person has the right to be accessed by his or her lawyers or relatives while in detention.
Disappearances and abductions in Uganda have become common.
Several opposition supporters have gone missing or disappeared. Some of those that have reappeared narrate that they were tortured by security agents during their detention.
Police officers have also been victims of illegal arrests or disappearances.
In October 2017, seven officers were arrested by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (now Defence Intelligence and Security) on allegations of abducting and illegally extraditing Rwandan refugees, including Lt Joel Mutabazi, back to Rwanda.
They were also accused of failing to protect war materiel. They were held in a military facility for more than nearly six months without access to their families or lawyers before they were produced in the General Court Martial and charged with capital offences, but they denied all the charges.
They were later joined on the same charge sheet on which the former Inspector General of Police Gen Kale Kayihura was accused of capital offences. Although Gen Kayihura was released on bail days after he appeared in court, the others remained on remand for more than four years.
They were later released on bail, but barred from travelling outside of Kampala City and Wakiso District without court’s approval.
Gen Kayihura’s charges were dropped last year and later retired from the army a day later.
Cases against the police officers, who were charged with him, were also dropped months later.
