Prime
Sipapa: The suspect who once met Museveni and had UPDF guards
Author: Musaazi Namiti. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Can our corrupt police investigate all of this and get to the bottom of the problem?
When news of a robbery that was staged at the home of a South Sudanese in Bbunga, a Kampala suburb, started making the rounds on social media, I googled the name of a man who the police said they were hunting as a prime suspect.
The very first video I watched about the man — he is named Charles Olim but is widely known as Sipapa — sprang surprises. In the video, posted to YouTube in March, Brig Felix Kulayigye, the spokesperson of the UPDF and the ministry of Defence, says Sipapa is guarded by soldiers.
“I asked my bosses to tell me who gave Sipapa soldiers,” Brig Kulayigye says. “They promised to give me an answer, and I am still waiting for it. We have started to investigate and find out how every Ugandan that moves around with soldiers got them.”
There are photos of Sipapa, a 33-year-old man from Tororo District now held on aggravated robbery charges, meeting President Museveni, the Commander-in-Chief.
Many presidential advisors can only dream of meeting the President, so a man who says he dropped out of school in Primary Seven and was once in jail for two years over a stolen laptop meeting the most powerful Ugandan is no mean feat.
Sipapa is said to be one of the prominent supporters of the governing NRM in Kampala. We cannot say the party does not know him when the President and chairman of the party knows him.
And if the police have evidence linking him to aggravated robbery, as they have been telling Ugandans, we must be concerned and ask pertinent questions. Is Sipapa acting alone or is he working with individuals in security forces?
The police have so far arrested five suspects, including Sipapa’s wife. The robbery, police said, occurred on August 29 at the home of Jacob Arok.
The robbers apparently used a substance to drug the house occupants and managed to gain entry, stealing $429,000 (Shs1.6b) and other items ranging from iPhones to laptops and a Samsung TV.
All the stolen items — and some money ($70,000) — were allegedly recovered at Sipapa’s house, although he had travelled at the time the police searched the house.
Journalists — the excitable and gullible lot — call Sipapa a tycoon, which is a misnomer, of course. The definition of a tycoon is a person who is successful in business or industry and has become rich and powerful. If Sipapa has investments, they are not known.
In the music industry, he is known for organising concerts where he hires musicians to perform and makes a profit from concert goers.
My Google search also brought up a tell-all interview that Sipapa gave NTV in 2020. He lived homeless as a young man and survived lynch mobs that often suspected him of being a thief.
In the interview, he made a motivational speaker-style statement, saying everyone can get rich. And he boasted that he drives a car worth Shs600m and rents homes that he leaves unoccupied.
Where does all the money come from? Sipapa struck gold, he says, when he started driving a used Range Rover he bought from businessman Sudhir Ruparelia’s wife for Shs80m.
ALSO READ: Celebrities are not above the law
Then a rumour started that he had allegedly stolen a minister’s gold. Sipapa says in the interview that a man from South Sudan approached him with a “lot of gold” looking for a buyer. He started selling it and became rich.
Can/will our corrupt police investigate all of this and get to the bottom of the problem?
We will wait and see.
Mr Musaazi Namiti is a journalist and former Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected] @kazbuk
