Security raids 3 city zones over Gen Katumba shooting
Forensic experts and Police officers secure and investigate the crime scene with the car of Uganda's former transport minister General Katumba Wamala in Kampala, Uganda, on June 1, 2021. PHOTO/ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Heavily armed personnel in plain clothes and black uniforms put Lugoba, Kaziga and Kibwa zones under lock down on Monday until they arrested suspects whom they claimed were under their watch list, but had hid in the house a few days after the shooting.
A Joint security team led by Police Crime Intelligence personnel locked down three zones in Kawempe Division for more than six hours as they carried out a search to arrest three suspects in an attempted assassination of Gen Edward Katumba Wamala last month.
Heavily armed personnel in plain clothes and black uniforms put Lugoba, Kaziga and Kibwa zones under lock down on Monday until they arrested suspects whom they claimed were under their watch list, but had hid in the house a few days after the shooting.
One suspect was later arrested in a rental at Kibwa, another in Kaziga, and the last at Lugoba.
The suspects were dragged into the waiting vehicles and driven away. Their identities aren’t yet known.
Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire confirmed the presence of security personnel in the area, but declined to divulge any information.
“You talk to police headquarters for the details,” Assistant Superintendent of Police Owoyesigyire said yesterday.
Efforts to get a comment from the national police spokesman were futile.
Gen Katumba was shot and injured while in his army vehicle by armed assailants, who were riding motorcycles. His daughter Brenda Nantongo and driver Haruna Kayondo were shot dead by the assailants on Kisota Road in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb on June 1.
Two suspects, Ismael Hussein Sserubula and Siraji Yusuf Nyanzi, were later arrested and charged in court and remanded to prison with the murder of Nantongo and Kayondo, and attempted murder of Gen Katumba.
Crime Intelligence sources said the suspects were tracked using the new technical capabilities that were acquired under the smart city project.
The operatives kept waiting for them to get out of their residential areas, but they could have detected the move by the security officers and locked themselves in the houses.
The source said the operatives later decided to do a cordon and search of the entire area and each suspect was found hiding in the house.
During the operation at Kawempe, armed operatives didn’t allow any residents in the area to move. Motorists were also told to stay where they were until 7.30 PM when the operation ended.
Residents, who were rushing back home to avoid being caught by curfew deadline, were told to wait by the roadside.
