
Writer: Benjamin Rukwengye. PHOTO/FILE.
Towards the end of 2023, Paddy Sserunjogi, commonly known as Sobi, met his death in an almost surrealistic manner. It was poetic justice that someone who had lived by the sword died by a literal one.
Sobi had been the notorious gang leader and confessed criminal whose Kifeesi gang was implicated in every manner of crime. Petty and violent theft and robberies, street brawls, and even murder.
They were never brought to book because at around the time his group peaked, the Uganda Police was also going through its own transformation into a quasi-criminal entity.
As such, the group enjoyed a certain camaraderie with the security and intelligence apparatus and were often deployed as informers and neuters against a rapidly growing young opposition, especially in the ghettos.
The lines had gotten so blurred that sometimes it wasn’t clear to distinguish between the criminals and the law enforcers. But like they say, every thief has their 40 days – even if those can take a lifetime. So, on that December day, in Maddu, Gomba District, Sobi and his gang found themselves in the middle of a land wrangle.
Their puppeteer had deployed them to protect a piece of earth that was in dispute. To assert their presence, they destroyed crops and brought the fight to the community, as they were wont to do. But the villagers would not have it.
They attacked in droves – pangas, spears, sticks, and stones – overpowered the gangsters, and hacked several of them – including Sobi – to death As videos of his final seconds of life made rounds on the internet, you could tell that few people were sympathetic about his death or the nature of it.
But you also knew that it was indicative of how low the law enforcement and judicial systems had fallen, that criminals were now in bed with those meant to apprehend them and citizens were now taking matters into their own hands.
That near-total breakdown of policing and judicial systems in this period also manifested itself in the fabrication of evidence against, especially those thought to be in opposition to the government.
Many young people found themselves in jail and safe houses because of cooked-up intel whose only purpose was to prolong the office terms of whoever was calling the shots. The most prominent of this breakdown is the case of the two Opposition members of Parliament – Muhammed Ssegirinya and Allan Ssewanyana.
For over two years, the two were locked up and rouletted through the court system for allegedly being involved in rampant murders in the Masaka area. It was clear that the state did not have enough evidence to prosecute the case or hold them but they still got locked up anyway.
Ssegirinya was a maverick who made his name from religiously contributing to public affairs debate on radio, a devastatingly effective use of social media live streaming services, and dabbling in theatrical protestations against issues of injustice.
When he finally made it to Parliament, he served his constituents with such unprecedented gusto, like he knew he wouldn’t have enough time to change their lives. Health centre, check. Ambulance, check. Bursaries, check. Welfare programmes, check.
Pound for pound, he has a good claim for the most consequential member of Parliament based on constituency impact – even if he was only able to serve for 10 months. His death week was as unfortunate as it was needless. Whatever killed him is said to have been contracted – or at least aggravated by his incarceration.
The bogus charges on which he was held and the court’s refusal to grant him bail even when he pleaded that his health was failing are yet another indictment and blood stain on the system. What good is a government, its security organs, or its courts, if they are in cahoots with gangsters like Sobi? What good are they if they won’t save, serve, and protect the rights and lives of decent folks like Ssegirinya?
@Rukwengye, Boundless Mind