Noah Sajjabi, the Grade One Magistrate said that the ruling could not be delivered today because the file containing the particulars of the offense was sanctioned by the Director of Public Prosecution on the March 23rd therefore it wasnt available for reference
There seems to be no headway in the investigations as General Kale Kayihura, who vowed to find the killers, leaves the police force. His 12 years as the top police officer ended yesterday, Thursday, when he formally handed over office to the new Inspector General of Police Okoth Ochola. The investigations have failed to proceed beyond the initial rounding up of suspects. Out of the more than 40 people initially arrested, 23 of whom were charged in court, only three have been linked to the shooting.
On Monday, three days after the officers appeared at the Court Martial, officers at the police headquarters could barely speak and the corridors were empty, unlike it has been in the past when people could be seen chatting away.
Kamwenge Town Council Mayor, Geoffrey Byamukama, has been released; five months after police arrested and tortured him in connection to the killing Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi. Police spokesperson Asan Kasingye says Byamukama was released today on police bond and that he is required to report to Kira Road Police Station once every week.
URN has learnt that operatives of the Flying Squad a week ago interrogated Geoffrey Byamukama for the third time since his arrest on April 5, 2017. In all three interrogations, however, Byamukama reportedly denied all allegations levied against him as well as his association to the assassins that murdered Andrew Felix Kaweesi, his driver and escort.
Almost three months later, the hunt is still on for the three suspected hit-men, two of whom are believed to be of close likeness to the composite sketches made immediately after the shooting. The three, according to the police, include two shooters and a motorcyclist who transported them.
According to a reliable Police source, the suspects were picked up on Saturday by a combined team of operations from Flying Squad, Criminal Investigations Directorate CID and Special Operations Unit.
Media freedom activists have faulted the High Court deputy registrar, Joy Kabagye, for issuing an injunction stopping media houses and journalists from publishing stories on the investigation into the March 17th murder of police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
Court has issued an interim order refraining journalists and media houses sued by police chief Kale Kayihura from publishing anything to do with the Kaweesi murder investigations. The Inspector General of Police IGP Kale Kayihura on Wednesday sued journalists and four media companies for allegedly compromising national security by reporting on the ongoing investigations into the March 17 assassination of Assistant Inspector General of Police, Andrew Felix Kaweesi. The interim order only affects The Red Pepper, The Investigator, The Ugandan, Chimpreports plus their owners and the chief news editors.
Eighty five police officers have been convicted in criminal courts and sentenced for their individual criminal actions in the last 12 years. These are part of 1,946 police officers who have been implicated in more than 22,460 complaints filed by the public and investigated by the Professional Standards Unit PSU. The Uganda Police established PSU in 2005, first as a disciplinary committee of the force. It was expanded and empowered to investigate all kinds of complaints and crimes against the police personnel.
Police Investigators are yet to make any headway in identifying the person who issued death threats to Andrew Felix Kaweesi days before he was assassinated twelve days ago. The threats are one of the leads that police is following in trying to bring to book the assassins of Kaweesi, his driver Godfrey Mambewa and body guard Kenneth Erau. The trio was gunned down on the morning of March 17th when gunmen ambushed the car in which they were travelling near Kaweesis residence in Kulambiro, Kampala.
Just hours after the shooting incident, the police circulated composite images of people they thought were the prime suspects. The first composite image was released barely three hours after Kaweesi was gunned down and subsequently others came out in the days that followed with the latest having been released on the night of Tuesday, March 21, hours after Kaweesi was buried at his home in Lwengo district.
General Kayihura will work with an Inter-agency team comprised of the Flying Squad, Special Investigations Division SID and Internal Security Organisation ISO. The team is to be complimented by experts from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations - FBI.
