Kaweesi case divides police, CIID, CMI, ISO

The late Kaweesi ran into trouble in 2015 because of this. At the time, both Museveni and the First Son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, were calling Kaweesi often and this upset Kayihura. That is how when Kaweesi was accused of supporting Amama Mbabazi, Kayihura quickly used the opportunity to move him from the influential Directorate of Operations to the Directorate of Human Resource Development. The Independent could not confirm how it happened but once the calls from Museveni and Muhoozi stopped, Kaweesi got back in the good books of Kayihura.

Indeed at the time of his death, Kaweesi was the one handling almost all the top assignments. He was leading the effort to have the police screened to purge it of quack police officers; he was leading the effort to develop the police doctrine; he was the main supervisor for the training at the Bwebajja-based Police Senior Command and Staff College. In fact, minutes before he died he had been talking to AIGP Abbas Byakagaba about a graduation of a cohort of officers that have been undergoing training. Kaweesi was also in charge of a project to clean the image of police and that is how he was appointed the forces spokesperson. Apart from all these, even though officially, the docket of sports in police falls under AIGP, Andrew Sorowen, who heads the Directorate of Special Duties, Kayihura had tasked Kaweesi to oversee it too. Those close to Kaweesi say, overtime, Kayihura had grown to realise that Kaweesi was effective.

All this had happened after Kayihura realized that Kaweesi’s direct contact with the president had ceased.

Akullo on the other hand, has remained close to the president. And since 2014, has been sidelined as a result of her closeness to the president and the first lady, sources say. When it all started, it was her fuel allocation that was first slashed, then her docket’s budget and then her staffers. In one swoop, hundreds of detectives from the CIID were dropped after undergoing a vetting exercise. Reason? They were found unfit to serve in that docket. Meanwhile, Akullo, according to sources close to her, was also hearing about the developments like others.

That was not all.

Gen. Kayihura, put in charge her deputy, Detective Senior Commissioner, Godfrey Musana, a seasoned, old school detective, who once belonged to the Special Branch, an intelligence out fit in police that was established in colonial times that Kayihura disbanded in 2008.

While Musana is described as a very capable officer, because he was now the one in Kayihura’s favour, a rift ensued between him and Akullo, which insiders said, affected the Directorate and the cases it was working on.

It was Musana, who was charged with handling major cases like killing of Joan Kagezi, the Deputy Director of Prosecutions at the War Crimes Division of the High Court, who was killed on March 30 2015 in the same way as Kaweesi.

Interestingly, in the case of Kagezi, Akullo, was a few metres behind and was the first senior officer to arrive at the scene. Despite this, her seniority in investigations and the fact that she was heading CIID, Kayihura handed over the case to Musana.

She was also sidelined in the investigation of the murder of city businessman Eriya Sebunya alias Kasiwukira, the equity bank fraud case, which got another senior detective Charles Kataratambi suspended over misconduct. Musana also handled the killing of Juvenal Nsenga, who was run-over by his wife, Ms Jackie Uwera.

The last case put police on the spot. While they preferred charges of manslaughter or rash and negligence against Uwera, the Director of Public Prosecutions sanctioned murder charges. Musana objected and later turned a defence witness. But Court found Uwera guilty of murder and sentenced her to 20 years in jail.

In this case, Musana’s investigation was caught up in a fight between Gen. Kayihura, who is said to be related to Uwera and then DPP, Richard Butera, related to Nsenga.

Akullo was not only sidelined, some of her cases were undermined by her juniors. One such case was the investigations into the 169 pension scam.

In 2015, Akullo was forced to explain to parliament the circumstances under which two contradicting reports, one signed by her and another by two of her subordinates—George Komurubuga and Moses Kato— had ended up with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Akullo had blamed the two officials for taking bribes and attempting to mess up investigations.

At the centre of the contradictions was who to prosecute and who not to prosecute.  The suspects in the case include; Christopher Obey, the former chief accountant at Public Service, then PS Jimmy Lwamafa, Steven Lwanga, a former accounts assistant at the ministry, Steven Kunsa Kiwanuka, the former director for research and development, Francis Lubega, a former information system analyst, David Japins Oloka, a former senior accounts assistant, Peter Ssajjabi of the East African Community Beneficiaries Association and some workers of Cairo bank.

Contrary to the first report, the second report, which Komurubuga and Kato, allegedly authored, recommended the exclusion of Ssajjabi and Lubega from the charge-sheet and also exonerated Cairo bank. Akullo’s report dated December 30, 2013 wanted all these suspects prosecuted and shows that Cairo Bank was part of the process of hatching the scam.

The contradictions aside, Akullo’s revelations about the bribes her subordinates took and the accused intimated to her that they had sent to her that she never received, is what seems to have opened a can of warms and engulfed the entire force in bribery allegations.

In light of these developments, Kayihura was forced to establish another unit called the Special Operations Unit (SOU) led by the fierce Nickson Agasiirwe.

Kayihura that same month said the overall operational command and control will be directly under the IGP assisted by CIID director and her deputy are meant to intensify the investigations, for which he is the supervisor.

At CIID, Godfrey Musana stayed in-charge until mid-last year when he was quietly recalled to police headquarters.

Apart from Musana, Kayihura has been working with commanders of the Kireka-based Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and the Flying Squad. These commanders are mainly young officers, who senior officers refer to as novices.

While these commanders have brought on board fresh energy and skills in latest technologies, sidelining their seniors has cost the police valuable experience, an officer told The Independent.

“The old guard has no problem with the new commanders as you media people allege,” he said, “these two were supposed to supplement each other. The problem is that we have tended to replace the old officers with experience with the young ones. What we should be doing is reinforcing.”

This intrigue is said to have sucked all life from CIID. Yet as its boss leads the latest case, which should signal her comeback, but she returns at the worst time possible.