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Iron bar hit men change tactics
Dirisa Rwelekera, one of the victims of the rising spate of city robberies, in the casuality ward at Mulago Hospital yesterday. Photo by Faiswal Kasirye
What you need to know:
The strategy. City robbers have now adopted new strategies as they seek to outsmart members of the public that are now increasingly alert.
Dirisa Rwelekera, a 36- year-old boda boda cyclist, now lying in Mulago Hospital with severe head injuries, almost lost his life over the weekend, when two men hit him on the head with an object he strongly believes was a hammer.
According to Rwelekera, the two unidentified men, found him in Makindye and asked to be given a ride up to Nyanama, another city suburb, from where he would later meet his fate.
“They were two, one pretended to be drunk and the other was supporting him. When we reached Nyanama, they told me to stop at some mansion. From behind I felt a hammer hit my head and one of them told me not to scream or he would chop my head off,” Rwelekera said.
The two hit-men ran away with his bodaboda and all what was in his pocket. It was the owner of the mansion that came to his rescue. Such are some of the new tactics adopted by thugs around the city, who target unsuspecting members of the public.
According to Kampala Metropolitan police, earlier investigations into this crime indicate that hit men are mainly fellow boda boda men, vendors and other unemployed youth. The victims are mainly boda boda cyclists, those who move at night and early in the morning.
In Kampala, the main black spots are Mawanda Road, Northern By Pass, along Nakivubo Channel, Nakulabye, Bwaise, Nateete, Ntinda Stretcher, among others.
“We have been sensitising the public and are working on the deployment after marking the black spots. In town, we are now using CCTV motor vehicles which help monitor the city, ” Ibin Ssenkumbi, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Daily Monitor.
He added that black spots are not permanent and when Police identify one, the hit men always shift their attention to another.
