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Is Susan Magara murder investigation dead?
Murdered Susan Magara. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Fifty three days since the body of Suzan Magara, who had been held by kidnappers for 21 days, was discovered, no one has been charged in courts of law with the gruesome crimes of kidnap and murder that shook the nation.
- Reports also indicate that hopes of having Mr Agaba extradited have been further dampened by the fact that Uganda has a death penalty, which Mr Agaba could face in case he is tried and convicted.
- What Mr Kayima could not promise, however, is that the police and other intelligence agencies will come out and with finality say they have cracked the crime, gathered the requisite evidence and the suspects will be tried in the near future.
Fifty three days since the body of Suzan Magara, who had been held by kidnappers for 21 days, was discovered, no one has been charged in courts of law with the gruesome crimes of kidnap and murder that shook the nation.
So high profile was the crime that President Museveni was drawn in at the time Magara was still in the hands of the kidnappers.
The President instructed intelligence agencies to investigate the matter and, as we would learn after Mugara’s body was discovered, kept duly briefed on the developments.
In response to the crime, the police pledged a bounty of Shs100m to whoever would avail information to nail the criminals that killed Magara, the highest bounty the police had staked on a crime in years.
There have been scores of arrests since. One Patrick Agaba aka Pato, was arrested in South Africa in what intelligence sources said was a breakthrough in the investigations.
He was dubbed the “prime suspect” and the State set its sights on having him extradited to Uganda in connection to the crime.
Information available to Sunday Monitor, however, is that the extradition proceedings have not progressed well thus far, with the court in South Africa said to be demanding for more evidence linking Mr Agaba to the crime before a decision to extradite him is reached.
Reports also indicate that hopes of having Mr Agaba extradited have been further dampened by the fact that Uganda has a death penalty, which Mr Agaba could face in case he is tried and convicted.
South African courts, our sources say, do not ordinarily extradite suspects to countries where they could potentially face death on conviction.
It was claimed that Mr Agaba made off with much of the ransom money (said to be around Shs700m) that was collected from Magara’s family before she was killed.
Also arrested in connection with the crime is one Ronald Asiimwe aka Kanyankole.
“Yes, it is true Kanyankole was arrested but there is a lot more, it’s not all about Kanyankole alone,” the Brig Abel Kandiho, the head of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) told this newspaper after the arrest. One Bob Kibirango, said to be Kanyankole’s close associate, was also arrested, and this newspaper also reported that two cousins of the late Magara’s were also arrested in connection to her murder.
The other suspect arrested thus far over the crime is Senior Superintendent of Prisons Apollo Akankunda Bakwate, who is still held at the CMI headquarters. Sunday Monitor, basing on information from highly placed security sources, reported on April 8 that his arrest could have little to do with the crime and more to do with a wrangle between him and an army officer.
All the suspects held in the country in connection to the crime have been held for much longer than the legally permissible 48 hours before being charged in a court of law.
“Report on the way”
Contacted on Friday over the status of the investigation, police spokesperson Emilian Kayima said he would issue a report about the number of suspects, the charges preferred against them and when possibly they will be charged in the courts of law.
“I can only talk about that matter after getting a written report from CIID (Criminal Investigations and Crime Intelligence Directorate) headquarters. That is possibly sometime next week,” Mr Kayima said by telephone.
Hours after Magara’s body was recovered, it was announced that Cabinet had directed the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to urgently institute an investigation aimed at ascertaining telecom companies whose customers are still using unregistered SIM cards.
It is said the kidnappers changed SIM cards for more than 20 times during their communications with the family.
Information Communications and Technology minister Frank Tumwebaze said at the time that the directive was reached at the previous Cabinet meeting a week before. UCC would report the findings in two weeks, Mr Tumwebaze told journalists in Kampala.
On March 9, 2018, UCC announced that there would be no more selling of SIM cards on the streets as this has been abused by criminals.
“From now on, we shall not allow any hawkers of communication gadgets before the implementation of the new improvements. We have introduced card readers where all the people will have to put in their particulars,” Mr Godfrey Mutabazi, the UCC executive director, said then.
UCC claims the directive is as a result of the increased rate of cyber-related crimes in the country.
Mr Kayima said last Friday the same report about the suspects would include the status of the investigations into finding who killed Magara.
What Mr Kayima could not promise, however, is that the police and other intelligence agencies will come out and with finality say they have cracked the crime, gathered the requisite evidence and the suspects will be tried in the near future.
Such a development will go a long way to soothe a country that has so many murders and high profile crimes unresolved.
Other unresolved killings
Capital offences. The issue of capital offences not being conclusively resolved has come up repeatedly and the hope is that the Magara murder will not become another of those.
Just last week, Director of Public Prosecutions Mike Chibita expressed frustration over the failure to resolve the murder of former Assistant Director of Prosecution Joan Kagezi.
Mr Chibita was speaking ahead of the Joan Kagezi memorial lecture that was held this Friday April 13, 2018. “There is no file directly linked to the murder of Joan Kagezi. People who did this were organised, they were not ordinary criminals. They were able to plan this and plan their escape,’” Mr Chibita said
Likewise, one year after the assassination of former Police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kawesi, his driver and bodyguard, there is no conclusive report into the investigations by the police and other security agencies. Dozens of people were arrested after being suspected to be connected to his murder but there has been no report pinning the exact person who pulled the trigger.
Information. Speaking in Mityana District during the International Women’s Day celebrations on March 8, President Museveni said he has information on the killers of Magara and many of the other murders. But this is hard to back up without action. The killing of Muslim clerics in recent years also remains unresolved.
