The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Gen. Katumba Attack: rights defenders demand incident report into killing of suspects
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Human rights defenders have tasked investigators of the June 1st, 2021 attempted assassination of Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala to produce a report detailing how security gunned down two prime suspects. Four assailants riding on two motorcycles riddled Katumba’s vehicle with bullets at Kisota road, which claimed the lives of his daughter, Brenda Nantongo and Driver, Haruna Kayondo.
On Thursday and Friday this week, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Major Gen. Paul Lokech and the Overall Supervisor of the joint investigations team addressed the media where he revealed that security had gunned down Hussein Lutwama aka Lubwama alias Master and Mustafa Kawawa Ramadan alias Amin.
Gen. Lokech said that although Master was not armed, he tried to fight the officers prompting them to shot him dead. According to Gen Lokech, Amin was shot dead when he tried to flee from the home of Juma Seiko, one of the suspects in Kanyogoga, Bukasa Parish, Makindye Division, in Kampala where two SMGs and a pistol were recovered.
The shooting of the suspects has not gone down well with human rights lawyers, saying it is unlawful for security agencies to shoot and kill unarmed suspects. Dr. Livingston Ssewanyana, the Founder of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative –FHRI, says security officers should have maimed the suspects instead of killing them. He describes the killing of unarmed suspects as extrajudicial killings, saying the security personnel who pulled the trigger should be tried for executing the suspects.
Lawyer Umar Nyanzi from Muslim Centre for Justice, says that the summary execution of the suspects violates article 28 (3) (a) of Uganda Constitution, which states that all suspects are presumed guilty until proven guilty. It provides that “Every person who is charged with a criminal offense shall be presumed to be innocent until proven guilty or until that person has pleaded guilty.”
He says that the two suspects should have been given chance to defend themselves in courts of law.
He also rebukes some media houses that have described the deceased and those in custody as Gen Katumba ‘shooters’ instead of naming them as suspects.
On Friday, Gen Lokech contradicted himself when he claimed that prior to his shooting; Master revealed that he had given the gun to Kasambira Siriman alias Mukwasi. This was in contradiction to his earlier statement on Thursday indicating Master was killed when he engaged the security officers.
However by revealing that Master told security that the killer guns were being kept by Mukwasi, shows that he was cooperating with security, which raises questions why he was killed. Security claimed that Master was a skilled martial arts fighter.
Gen. Lokech also claimed that Master received special training in the Democratic Republic of Congo since all the motorcycle assassins in Uganda are members of the rebel Allied Democratic Forces –ADF while Mukwasi received training in Tanzania and Mozambique.
Najib Kasule, a human lawyer and member of the Network for Public Interest Lawyers, said that there is need for independent investigations to collaborate the security narrative on the circumstances under, which Master and Amin were killed.
Although, Ssewanyana, Kasule and Nyanzi agree that security is allowed to use reasonable force when a suspect resists arrest, they say Master and Amin should have been maimed but not executed. Gen Katumba attackers, according to Gen Lokech, have also been linked to the killing of Major Muhammad Kiggundu and former Police Spokesperson, Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
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No body is safe,am also not because how did they reach at that final conclusion.🤔
A person who commands an operation to kill a general is not simple. These soldiers fear such people and shoot at the slightest suspicion that the suspect could attack. Martial arts is a skillful trade. If it is true they killed the generals daughter and the driver, it serves them right.
These so called human rights lawyers or advocates are not serious. They do not say what they say out of conviction, but for opportunistic reasons. That’s how they earn their living. Their brief is to portray Uganda’s security agencies as murderers. I did not see them go to commiserate with General Katumba over the violation of his human rights. Not even messages of condolences on the loss of his daughter and driver. A number of Ugandans are murdered in cold blood by criminals everyday, but I have not heard these lawyers take a stand against the murderers. Family members, relatives, spouses… are butchering each other on a daily basis as human rights advocates sit pretty in their air conditioned office suites. To them, it’s only state functionaries who can violate human rights!
About Gen. Lokech contradicting himself is nonsense. He said the suspect was shot while trying to cut loose. At what point the suspect tried to run, we do not know. Probably he saw an opening for possible escape and he tried his luck and he lost the gamble. Maybe he even felt he had betrayed his cause by disclosing details of his operation and accomplices. We can only interrogate and dispute Gen. Lokech version of events if we have evidence to contradict his facts. These lawyers (activists) are also pretending not to know that a cooperating witness can turn hostile and repudiate cooperation at any point during the hearing of a case. Likewise, a suspect can opt for a similar route to avoid looking like a snitch. Let’s give Gen. Lokech the benefit since we are not privy to the circumstances as to why, and when, the deadly force was used.
Shooting an unarmed suspect is not unlawful if the shooter had no other option. And terming the shootings “summary executions”, is too prejudicial and harsh unless you have information to support the claim.
I wonder what Sewanyana’s reaction would be if i raped and killed his daughter. Would he passionately defend “my rights” as a suspect until proven guilty? Would he also advocate against the death penalty in the event am found guilty? Obviously not.
Mulira Sekabaka (whoever Sekabaka you are!!!), how does raping come into this story?? Anyhow, if ever we are to move forward into a world where justice is supreme and paramount, we need to be more civilised, and allow the rules of investigation and thereby the rule of law to take their course.
I shudder at the thought of all of us, or any of us, becoming arresting officer, prosecutor, judge and jury in an instance, to arrest, put to trial, and hang a suspect without proper channels of justice.
I wonder how many half reasonable Ugandans would believe that the extra judiciary murdered men were the “real” murderers who attempted to kill Katumba Wamala, and took the lives of his daughter and driver.
Nothing said by Lokech makes any sense. Well, just maybe, and only maybe in Uganda!!!!
i still wonder how investigations into Katumba’s case have been as brief as a mini skirt unlike other cases a point in case is one afande Kirumira’s case, the likes of Mama Fiina’s husband and others.