COMMENT: Magara and other chilling murders

A travel advisory to Uganda is now in order as the forces fail to guarantee security for persons and property

COMMENT | MORRIS KOMAKECH | The chilling kidnap and murder of Suzan Magara has dented the faith of Ugandans in the security of this country. This crime was at another level of syndication, a high level of crime in the developing murder industry. The mystery of European “investors” dying in five-star hotels in Kampala had hit a new peak to displace the mystery of the murder of young women whose bodies were dumped in different bushes along the Kampala-Entebbe corridor. That series of murder superseded the assassination-type killings of Prosecutor Joan Magezi and Assistant Inspector General of Police Felix Kaweesi.

The Kaweesi killing was somehow not very surprising although the manner in which it was executed shocked the nation. It was like an over-filling balloon of murders that inevitably burst with a prick. There were murders, kidnaps and illegal detentions of businessmen and women already going on. The Police was already engulfed in these murders with a strong sense that Kaweesi was part of this criminality.

Before that, the unfettered killings of Muslim clerics had demystified assassinations in Uganda. The general population had the impression that society was proliferated with guns. These things come along in predictable patterns like the hind legs of the cow follow the front. When crimes are committed and the authorities downplay them, obscure facts about them, and fail to resolve them, it opens the door for more crimes. In fact, if the killers of Suzan Magara are not apprehended, we shall yet witness a higher level and some more organised gruesome killings.

The series of shocking murders show how criminals have usurped and pervaded this nation. Most frightening is the fact that the Uganda police and a plethora of security organisations are literally unable to avert crime. This may beckon citizens’ indulgence in their own security.

The Magara murder affirms that the security people prefer reactionary approaches to dealing with crime. The explanation could be that they are inextricably intertwined with these crimes, and some benefit from these crimes individually. You see, suspects apprehended, remain suspects with incomplete investigations to tie them to any of these crimes. Even then, many attest that they operate on behalf of, or in association with the security people; some are false suspects tortured into confession.

Ms Magara’s circumstances are certainly unique given the monies and involvement of the person of the President in the matter. She was a privileged person in life and death. The criminals seem to have known their target quite well. They were not petty criminals – they are professionals who are well rehearsed and connected to the system. They were able to use unregistered sim cards. How so?

The paradox to grapple with is that with all these unresolved extra-judicial murders, it takes the Ugandan security operatives no less than 20 minutes to quickly mobilise, deploy, and contain a peaceful demonstration with precision.

More challenging is the choice of Kampala and Wakiso as the crime-end-scene. This is fascinating because of the dense network of security along the Kampala – Entebbe corridor. The security lapse raises concerns that the security operatives are primary suspects or key enablers of these crimes.

Unfortunately, some of the victims are so ordinary that the President Yoweri Museveni thinks they are prostitutes and drunkards. Such unfortunate considerations only demonstrate the nature of an incompetent and illegitimate state that is distanced from the unadorned realities of its own people.

It is increasingly obvious that security instrument of the state is organised and structured to protect the political ambitions, wealth, and cronies of one person – Museveni.

Without guaranteeing the security for persons and their properties, Ugandans in diaspora are advised against travelling to Uganda. Soon, more investors, their children, school children, tourists, and rural to urban migrants will become soft targets of kidnaps for ransom.

*****

Morris Komakech is a Ugandan socio-political commentator based in Canada.

Contact: mordust_26@yahoo.ca