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UPDF gun used to kill and rob in city
Brig Felix Kulayigye, defence public information officer
What you need to know:
- The army say while the killer gun belongs to the UPDF, the assailants likely hired it from a deserter who is wanted by the army.
The gun that assailants used to kill a guard in Kampala’s Rubaga Division on Tuesday night belongs to Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), investigators have revealed.
The attackers stole a gun from their deceased victim, a 36-year-old private security guard posthumously identified as Peter Agama, who was an employee of Wolves Security Group.
Police said the incident happened at BanXell Forex Bureau in Kabuusu at about 10pm and the robbers took no cash but made off with only the guard’s rifle.
Three of them were tracked and arrested and the killer gun and the robbed one both recovered in the swoop.
Brig Felix Kulayigye, the defence public information officer, yesterday confirmed that the killer gun belongs to the UPDF, but said the assailants likely hired it from a deserter who is wanted by the army.
“It is true,” he said of the gun’s ownership. “Three suspects carried out the shooting and two have so far been arrested. It appears the gun they used was hired [out] by a UPDF deserter. We are still hunting for him,” he added.
Security sources told this newspaper that the suspects are part of a group that has been staging armed robberies and terrorising city residents.
The Defence Security and Intelligence (DSI) agency, formerly the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), and police have been jointly tracking the outlaws for a while, although they eluded arrest.
On the weekend, DSI identified the suspects after receiving specific intelligence lead as to their next plot.
According to security sources, the suspects on the fateful day this week had aimed to raid Lubaga Police Post near the Catholic Cathedral, the seat of Kampala Archdiocese, with a plan to steal AK-47 rifles from the on-duty police officers.
They reportedly changed plan after they found security at the police post reinforced.
A source familiar with the investigations said they believe the assailants who were on their way to an unknown destination, shot and killed the guard because they saw an opportunity to take a gun.
No cash taken
Investigators said this explains why the suspects did not raid and rob cash at the forex bureau that their victim was guarding.
“They saw an armed private security guard, who was alone and went for him. They shot him and made off with his gun,” a source said.
Another source said once an alert about a shooting incident in Rubaga Division was flagged in security circles, surveillance teams suspected it was the group which had been on the radar.
The personnel swung into action, tracking the suspects to Kawaala Zone, another city outskirt, and the trio was arrested at a betting place.
Two guns were reportedly retrieved from the suspects, which investigators intend to tender as part of the evidence to incriminate them.
In a statement yesterday, the Deputy Public Relations Officer for Kampala Metropolitan Police, Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, said that the suspects fled the crime scene with the loot.
“Eyewitnesses reported the swift departure of the assailants, leaving Mr Agama fatally wounded. Swift action was taken by law enforcement and security agencies following the incident. A pursuit of the suspects ensued, culminating in their apprehension …,” he noted.
Recovered
We are withholding the identities of the three suspects that police named, pending their arraignment in court.
“Two firearms were recovered during the operation; these are [gun number] UG PSO 56 4000868 12452, along with 13 rounds (presumably the firearm belonging to the deceased), and another firearm, believed to have been used in the commission of the crime, with 10 rounds (bullets),” the police statement on the incident read in part.
The police crime report for 2023 showed robbery cases registered in the year were 18.4 percentage points higher than in the previous year.
Last week, armed thugs attempted to carry out a robbery near a forex bureau in Bukoto, Nakawa Division, but a private security guard shot at them and they fled. The thugs are said to have made a comeback, only for the guard to again repulse them, this time shooting and injuring one who dropped his gun.
But it has not disclosed whether the recovered gun belonged to any state security or intelligence outfit, or was privately owned. Three suspects have since been identified by the police.
Gun fingerprinting
President Museveni, who is the commander-in-chief of the UPDF, directed the fingerprinting of all the guns in possession of security agencies following allegations that rogue officers were hiring them to robbers and sharing the loot.
It was part of the President’s 10-point security solution revealed during his address to Parliament in 2018 following the brutal shooting dead of then Arua Municipality Member of Parliament Ibrahim Abiriga near his home in Kawanda, Kampala.
Whereas Uganda Prisons Services and Uganda Police Force largely cooperated and fingerprinted most guns in hands of their personnel, the army, it turned out, was reluctant amid concerns that its involvements in operations outside Uganda could render soldiers vulnerable in the event of international inquiries.
This prompted Gen Museveni last year to issue fresh orders for the UPDF guns to be fingerprinted, with the data stored by the Defence Security and Intelligence agency, former CMI, and not Internal Affairs ministry as was the case with previous fingerprinting records.
