Police expert vanishes with vital access controls

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga

What you need to know:

  • Daily Monitor has established from the police management that no officer with that expertise was retired. Police hired a private person to sketch Kagezi’s killer.   

The police have  for three years failed to trace an expert who deserted with vital key control to sensitive documents in crime investigation.
Inspector of Police Nasur Mugega, who disappeared in 2018, was one of the two experts with Advanced Photofit software expertise in the Force.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga yesterday said Mr Mugega’s whereabouts are still unknown.
“Mr Mugega absconded from duty in 2018 with very vital access controls. His whereabouts are still not established,”  Mr Enanga said in a statement.
Mr Mugega was hired in 2015 as a civilian officer but later appointed Inspector of Police. 
The police couldn’t reveal details of cases they lost and funds since his disappearance.

The police statement comes after President Museveni said he was shocked that the only forensic artist in the Force with expertise to sketch suspects’ faces was retired.
The President said retiring an officer, who sketched the killers of Joan Kagezi, a senior prosecutor, is unpatriotic.
Some media houses identified the officer as Senior Commissioner of Police Samuel Ezati Dramani, who was retired in February 2020 after clocking retirement age despite applying for a contract.

However, Mr Enanga said Mr Ezati didn’t draw sketches of the wanted suspects, and that at the time of his retirement, he wasn’t in the Forensic Services Directorate, but Criminal Investigation Directorate, which doesn’t deal in such works.
Daily Monitor has established from the police management that no officer with that expertise was retired. Police hired a private person to sketch Kagezi’s killer.    
Mr Enanga said the police have procured a new system to carry out Advanced Photofit, which is yet to be delivered in the country.

The attrition rate in the police is 1,000 officers annually.
Although it is criminal for an officer to desert the Force, many illegally leave due to poor pay, welfare and better opportunities.