The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Ntoroko, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Crime Intelligence in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Directorate-CID have arrested three suspected masterminds of murder in various Western Uganda districts. CID spokesperson Charles Twine says that the hunt for the trio started with the kidnap and murder of Ntoroko district chairperson Japeth Kabagambe on September 2nd, 2021.
Kabagambe’s body was found in Ibanda after he had been reported missing from Fort Portal city, Kabalore district. It is alleged that two assailants driving in a Toyota Wish vehicle UAZ 658T lured Kabagambe into his deathtrap by offering him a lift. Police started hunting for the vehicle using footage from Closed-Circuit Television-CCTV cameras from one of the shops in Fort Portal city. After receiving the CCTV footage, crime intelligence shared it with the police spy camera operators who traced the movement of the vehicle.
They managed to track down the vehicle, whose owner revealed that he hired out the vehicle to Alleluia Bernabas the day Kabagambe was killed. “The owner of this Wish shared with us the contact of Alleluia Bernabas. We traced him and he was arrested. He confessed to committing the crime alongside Herbert Mutamba and one Ahimbisibwe,” Twine said.
He says that the trio has since confessed having demanded ransom of Shillings 10 million from Kabagambe and even forced him to call his friends to get the money. The trio say that they got tired of waiting for the money and decided to strangle Kabagambe using a seatbelt.
In their statements, which have been shared with the Commissioner Homicide at the CID headquarters, the group have named two other people they killed recently and robbed of their money. The victims are Nabisinde Melesi who they lured to Ishongororo town council in Ibanda district and strangled to death after getting Shillings 5 million.
They dumped her body along Mbarara bypass. They also reportedly lured Fred Kaggwa from Lyantonde district and strangled him along the way before dumping his body along Mbarara-Masaka highway. Kaggwa was a resident of Lwengo district.
Two other unidentified victims are fighting for their life at Mbarara hospital. In addition, CI and CID say that the suspects are linked to murders in Kigezi, Rwizi and Rwenzori regions.
CID records have since indicated that Alleluia and Mutamba were arrested over similar murders in 2009. They were charged in courts of law and sentenced to eight years in 2013, which they concluded about two months ago and immediately resumed their infamous trade.
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How do you sentence killers to 8 years only? You now see what happens: Uganda losing more people due to this kind of weakness from the judiciary. Now that they have killed 3 more people, is the judiciary going to sentence them to another 8 years or less? May God help our country!