I did not question Kwoyelo, police officer tells court

During a cross-examination session by the defence lawyers Caleb Alaka and Evans Ochieng, Mr Ogenmungu told the court that he rarely interfaced with Kowyelo while investigating charges against him, and that police had limited access to Kwoyelo, who was being detained by the (UPDF) before he was charged in court.

“The accused was considered a high-profile suspect and was never given to the police for custody but detained by the army. It was not possible (for me to access him and interrogate or record a statement from him),” Mr Ogenmungu said.

When asked by Mr Ochieng whether he made attempts through his bosses to have access to Mr Kwoyelo and interact with him, Mr Ogenmungu said he did not.

Mr Ogenmungu also told the court that whereas he established the status of Kwoyelo’s family during the investigation, he did not bother to interrogate his parents and siblings about the allegations against Mr Kwoyelo and his true identity.

The officer also said he investigated Mr Kwoyelo’s educational background and learnt that he did not study nursery education but enrolled for lower primary education at Pabbo Primary School and Pawel-Langetta Primary School before his abduction.

But when challenged to exhibit evidence to prove that Mr Kwoyelo studied in the two schools before his abduction, the detective stated that he based on Mr Kwoyelo’s narrative and that he failed to trace his records with the schools.

When Mr Ochieng challenged him to prove him wrong that Kwoyelo did not study at Pawel-Langetta Primary School, the detective also admitted that he did not visit the school to prove whether Mr Kwoyelo was at the school before the abduction but met a former head teacher of the school, whose statement he did not record while claiming Kwoyelo was at the school.

The defence lawyers reasoned that for Mr Kwoyelo to have been taken to prison, he must have been remanded by the court.

However, once they challenged Mr Ogenmungu to tell the court if he ever attempted to trace any court records of why he was remanded, he said Luzira Prison authorities explained to him that they were not aware of that.

“That (matter of remanding him to Luzira) came out from some of the witnesses whom I interviewed. I wrote to the prison authorities but they did not confirm that information. They claimed they did not have any records.”

Background

Mr Kwoyelo, who has been in custody since 2009, is charged with 93 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity alleged to have been committed in Pagak internally displaced people’s camp (IDP), Pabbo and Lamogi sub-counties in Amuru District between 1993 and 2005.

He is accused of committing robbery, pillaging, murder, sexual violence, forced abduction, and kidnapping, among other crimes.

He has severally expressed concern about his high blood pressure and paralysis on the right side of his body.

On Monday last week, the ICD resumed Mr Kwoyelo’s trial at the Gulu High Court circuit that ends on Friday with Justice Michael Elubu, Stephen Mubiru, Duncan Gaswaga, and Andrew Bashaija, who is an alternate judge and head of the ICD, presiding over the hearing.

 In November last year (2022), the ICD heard that the delay in prosecuting the case against Mr Kwoyelo is due to funding gaps.

Mr Kwoyelo has been in detention for almost 13 years.

On Tuesday, Mr Ogenmungu became the 53rd witness to testify against Mr Kwoyelo out of the total 120 witnesses lined up to testify against him.