Police reactivate crack unit to fight criminals

The police have reactivated its special purpose taskforce – a crack team of sorts – to fight rising crime in the capital, this newspaper can reveal.

Spokesman Fred Enanga said the decision followed the emergence of a new gang whose members trail and strike their victims in the chin with snap kicks, leaving them supine and unconscious on the ground.

They then rob valuables from the victims in public glare and unchallenged, according to footages of some of the attacks caught on Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras.

This wave of criminality has sparked panic among city dwellers who have in neighbourhood meetings and on social media raised alarm, and have questioned what the law enforcement agencies paid to maintain law and order and safeguard lives and property are doing.

Speaking yesterday at police’s weekly press briefing at the institution’s headquarters in Naguru, a Kampala suburb, Mr Enanga said: “We wouldn’t want Ugandans to lose hope, because through our Directorate of Crime Intelligence and the Flying Squad Unit, Crime Intelligence task teams have conducted several operations where we managed to arrest several individuals behind these violent attacks; flying kick attacks and grab incidents.”

Highly placed sources said that the crack team draws some of the finest personnel from police’s crime intelligence, which gathers classified information on crime patterns and criminals and sometimes effects arrests; the criminal investigations directorate (CID), which arrests, documents evidence and prepares case files; and, the Flying Squad, which tracks and apprehends hardcore criminals upon request by either Cid or Crime Intelligence directorates.

The reactivated taskforce has been broken down into zonal units and placed under direct command of Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander Stephen Tanui, with CID Director Tom Magambo and his Crime Intelligence counterpart, AIGP Christopher Damulira providing strategic direction.

Sources familiar with the arrangements said the revival of the crack team was informed by internal recognition that violent crime of the streets of the capital had become a “public safety threat and [fighting it] needed to be prioritised”.

Kampala has over the years gone through waves of violent crime, resulting in the government adopting different postures to respond.

In the early 2000s, President Museveni assigned then Col Elly Kayanja, now a two-star general, to clampdown on armed robberies in the capital through what was code-named Operation Wembley. It morphed into the Violent Crack Unit, which police disbanded amid accusations by rights groups of gross rights violations and other abuses.

VCCU was replaced with the Flying Squad Unit which faced similar accusations, leading to absorption of many of its tested personnel under the Directorate of Crime Intelligence.

Police Spokesman Enanga yesterday gave assurances that the purpose-specific team will rein in the outlaws and the streets of metropolitan Kampala, which is hosting thousands of guests trooping from within and abroad for Uganda Martyrs Day celebrations due on Monday, will be safe once again.

Some gangs are using motorcycles to ambush their victims carrying money or electronics. Others are bludgeon them with iron bars or pavers before stealing their valuables. Some of the incidents have been caught on police CCTV cameras on Ben Kiwanuka Street, near the Public Service Ministry and Wavamuno Close in Muyenga --- all in Kampala.

In the wake of the disturbances, police said they had taken into custody about 500 suspects from Kampala and Wakiso District which circumscribes the capital.

Many of the suspects were apprehended in the central business district, on Northern Bypass and in Katwe Police Division and in Kajjansi areas.

Mr Enanga yesterday revealed that most of the individuals terrorising the city  are youngsters, aged 18 or under.

The attacks, he noted, take less than a minute, making it hard for the police to come and combat the crime.

“From the groups we have arrested, these are young adults and unemployed individuals who are basically inspired by heist videos that they keep watching in movies. So, they draw inspirations from these kinds of violent attacks, which they use as a means of survival,” Mr Enanga said. He blamed members of the public for looking on during the attacks.

“They jump, [kick] and they rob somebody, and the other Ugandans are not bothered at all!” the spokesman said, “Members of the public who simply look on when a fellow Ugandan is being attacked and robbed … must know that fighting crime is a collective effort.”

Police investigations indicate that the suspects that were arrested were recently released from prisons from where investigators believe they regrouped into new terror gangs.

Detectives are investigating reports that some of them train in boxing gyms within ghettos in the city while some Boda Bodas do surveillance on potential targets, especially those from withdrawing cash from the banks.

“We call upon the banks to be more vigilant and use their security officers to carry out surveillance of people who go and camp near their banks, watching and [doing reconnaissance on] people who are coming out of the banks with money,” Mr Enanga added.

One such latest victim is a 53-year-old Ethiopian national and businessman identified as Simon Segeye, who hitched a ride on a Boda Boda from Bunga in Makindye Division in Kampala for his residence in nearby Kiwafu Zone in Kansanga Parish.

According to police, upon arrival at the gate, the rider, in conspiracy with other gang members also riding on motorcycles, struck Segeye on the head with a paver and stole Shs350,000 from him and fled.

Flying kick  dates
March 24: A  5 3-year-old Ethiopian national businessman, identified as Simon Segeye, who boarded a boda boda from Bunga in Makindye Division in Kampala and was heading to his residence in Kiwafu Zone in Kansanga Parish in Kampala was attacked and hit on the head using a paver and they robbed him off Shs350,000.  

May 18: In Kabalagala in Makindye Division in Kampala, a Mozambique national, identified as Ali Ilala, aged 45 years, was attacked while walking on foot to Speke Resort Munyonyo where he was attending a conference. The criminals stole a bank card, a phone valued at $300 (Shs1.1m) and $50 (Shs190,200) of cash. 
     
May 22: Then the most recent one of Ben Kiwanuka Street in Downtown Kampla, where a one Thompson Bainomugisha, aged 45 years, was attacked by a group of eight unidentified thugs who robbed him off a bag containing Shs450,000. Eight suspects were arrested after the incident. 
       
Mr Alex Basaliza, the assistant manager of Japan Motors Limited was also robbed off Shs600m. The suspects who were arrested over the incident included Mathew Ssentongo, Tonny Ssentamu, John Kiwanuka, Amis Muhammad and Jimmy Sserwadda. A total of Shs31.4 million and $1,500 (Shs5.7m) was recovered.