Police Yet to Link Byamukama to Kaweesi Murder

Investigating officers are yet to make headway in linking Kamwenge Mayor Geoffrey Byamukama to the March 17 murder of three police officers including Assistant Inspector General of police (AIGP) Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

  

Byamukama is alleged to have procured the hit men that gunned down the then police spokesperson, his bodyguard Kenneth Erau and driver Godfrey Mambewa in Kulambiro a Kampala suburb.

  

URN has learnt that operatives of the Flying Squad, a special unit of the Uganda Police Force, a week ago interrogated Byamukama for the third time since his arrest on April 5, 2017, almost three weeks after Kaweesi's shooting.

  

In all three interrogations, however, Byamukama reportedly denied all allegations levied against him as well as his association to the assassins that murdered Kaweesi and his two handlers.

  

 One of the lead investigators who preferred anonymity says the reason that Byamukama is yet to be charged is because they are yet to identify his motive in killing Kaweesi.

  

For a murder charge to hold there must be motive aforethought and the suspect must have the means.

  

"We don't have any evidence of intent. We suspect that Byamukama was also working for someone else but this is suspicion until we have evidence indicating so," the investigator says.

  

According to the source, Byamukama was implicated by two suspects who reportedly confessed in their statements to have helped the mayor identify four hit men.

  

The suspects, Hassan Tumusiime and Abubaker Ntende, have since been charged in court for the murder and terrorism.

  

According to a reliable source who has been part of the investigations, Tumusiime and Ntende told operatives of Flying Squad that they were approached by the mayor who wanted people who can carry out an assassination.

  

"They told us that Byamukama asked them to help him look out for expert hit men who can execute a job for him," the source who preferred anonymity told Uganda Radio Network.

In statements recorded by the suspects at the now controversial Nalufenya police facility, they indicate that they officially introduced four people to the mayor who include Aramazan Noor din Higenyi the only one arrested among the four suspected assassins.

  

"Byamukama even took us to Kulambiro and showed us where he wanted the work done from. I did not know that the person he wanted gunned down would be Kaweesi," reads Ntende's statement recorded on April 12th 2017 in part.

  

Police investigations also found telephone call records indicating constant communication between Ntende and the mayor as well as call exchanges between the mayor and Higenyi.

  

The police spokesperson Asan Kasingye refused to comment on the Kaweesi murder investigations on grounds that the case is already in court.

  

Byamukama was arrested on April 5 after the call print-out of Higenyi, the suspected hit man showed constant communication between them a few days before the murder of Kaweesi. Photographs of the mayor with wounds all over his body were published in the media putting police on the spot for torture. Several other suspects also accused police of torture forcing parliament to send a team of legislators to Nalufenya to verify the claims.

  

Just over a week ago, General Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police issued a public apology admitting that operatives at Nalufenya had, indeed, acted outside the law.

  

Police has since the murder of Kaweesi arrested more than 43 suspects, 24 of whom have since been arraigned in court on charges ranging from murder, conspiracy to murder, aggravated robbery and terrorism.