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City police torture student to death
Mr Hussein Kakumba, the father of the deceased Hussein Kakumba(inset), at his home in Gganda, Kampala on February 27, 2022. PHOTO BENSON TUMUSIIME
What you need to know:
- The Force confirms the killing on Thursday night at a post in Kasubi, vowing to arrest the accused officer, now on the run, so that he is prosecuted for “murder”.
A police officer, two football coaches and a female resident of Kasubi in Kampala are reportedly on the run after a student accused of theft was allegedly tortured to death at a police post.
The circumstances of the killing of 14-year-old Hussein Kakumba, which is now a matter of investigation by Kampala Metropolitan Police, is as heart-breaking as the reason for him being convinced to leave home, according to witnesses and detectives.
Kakumba was a talented footballer and two men, Muhammad bin Ali and a one Mark, both football coaches, spotted the teenager’s gift and offered to nurture him into a professional player.
To do that, they approached his father, also called Hussein Kakumba, a resident of Nganda in Wakiso, and convinced him to surrender the boy to them.
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The father, who is financially challenged, agreed and Kakumba junior was relocated to live with Ms Rose Nambooze, Muhammad bin Ali’s mother, in Kasubi, a Kampala suburb, so that he could be closer to a better school and train more.
Ms Nambooze this week then accused Kakumba, who had been in her care since schools reopened last month, of stealing Shs1.1m, and sent the Kasubi Secondary School student back to his father in Wakiso District.
Following the allegation, the two volunteer coaches, bin Ali and Mark, on Thursday visited Wakiso and Mr Kakumba senior said they convinced him to return the boy, who denied stealing the cash, to them so that they could convince Ms Nambooze to take him back in.
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That never happened. Instead, Kampala Metropolitan Police said the teenager was whisked to Nakyekolede police post, opposite Cheap Hardware in Kasubi, from where he was “assaulted”.
“The Officer-in-Charge of Nakyekolede, Cpl Amuge Micheal, allegedly started assaulting the suspect upon arrest for extraction of information on the whereabouts of the money suspected to be stolen by him,” Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, the deputy Kampala Metropolitan spokesperson, noted in a statement.
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The report of torture to death of a student comes in the wake of polarising national debate about unabated torture and rights violations by security forces, despite President Museveni’s warning as the commander-in-chief for an end to the violation.
In what investigators now believe was coerced confession, the teenager reportedly told interrogators that he had taken the money and hidden it in the pocket of his school uniform at his father’s house in Wakiso.
This prompted OC Amuge, accompanied by one officer, identified only as Bob, and the two coaches, to storm Mr Kakumba senior’s home in Ganda, Wakiso District, at around midnight with his son handcuffed.
The search turned out fruitless
When Amuge and his team returned to Nakyekolede, Mr Owoyesigyire noted in his statement to this newspaper, he rushed the suspect whose condition had deteriorated to Alpha Medical Centre in Kasubi.
The facility could not manage the boy’s condition and referred him to Mulago National Referral Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Mr Kakumba senior said one of the coaches telephoned him at about 4am on Thursday, telling him that the police officer “has killed your son and you should go and get the body from the City Mortuary [situated in Mulago]”.
Confused and panicked, the father rushed to Old Kampala, the divisional headquarters under which Nakyekolede police post falls, only to be bounced for hours when he needed help after filing the case.
He later alerted his area local councillors, who in turn telephoned police headquarters that assigned Kampala Metropolitan Police Community Liaison Officer, Mr David Mwebaze, to handle the situation since all superiors were meeting at Naguru police headquarters.
Mr Mwebaze met Kakumba senior at Old Kampala and proceeded to the City Mortuary to pick junior’s body and took it for burial in Kakiri, Wakiso District, on Saturday.
“OC Cpl Amuge is on the run. Efforts are, however, on to have him arrested on allegations of murder…,” Mr Owoyesigyire noted, adding, “the public should also note that the police [are] not in-charge of disciplining children who are suspected to have committed crimes.”
Mr Kakumba said he was not sure if a post-mortem was done for his child, whose mother died years ago, as police did not give him a report.
A source said yesterday that senior police officers will visit the distraught father tomorrow and are expected to give him some condolence money and update him on the status of their ongoing inquiries into the “murder” case.
According to a witness who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, the deceased was struck on the back of his head, prompting him to collapse on his face at the Nakyekolede police post.
“Now that my son has died innocently,” said his father Kakumba, “I request the police and other [government and security] agencies to look for the people responsible such that I can get justice.”
We were unable to find Mr Amuge to respond to the allegations and his known mobile phone number was switched off. His employer, Uganda Police Force, said he was on the run.
This reporter visited Ms Nambooze at her home in Kisubi, a Kampala outskirt, for an interview but was told she was away attending a burial.
There were many things wrong and rogue with the operation that led to the teenager’s death, said police insiders, who added that Mr Amuge, who had been an instructor at the police raining school in Kabalye, Masindi District, had been on the OC job for only a couple of months.
A senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to keep fraternal relations, said the search team from Nakyekolede police, which is under Old Kampala, did not report their presence and mission to Nansana Division, which has command and operational jurisdiction over Ganda, before proceeding to Kakumba’s home as required by police protocol.
There is no entry about the operation in the Nansana Division desk book and one officer at Nakyekolede police post told this publication yesterday that the complaint about the missing money was not formally lodged with them and, as such, they have no details of the case in the counter Criminal Record Book.
