Time to act on gun violence
What you need to know:
The issue:
Gun violence
Our view:
If the powers that be are committed to ending gun violence, then the perpetrators of these crimes must be made to see that there are consequences attached to these crimes.
If this doesn’t happen soon, then we will be caught in a loop where murders become more daring and frequent, with the resultant total breakdown in law and order where no one feels safe.
The news of the shooting of the Ndiga clan leader, Lwomwa Daniel Bbosa sent shock waves around Buganda and the country at large as yet another prominent citizen fell to the rampant misuse of guns. The shooting followed a familiar script where victims are waylaid by motorcycle riding goons and in most cases, assassinated before the criminals vanish into thin air.
Many such crimes, some dating back 10 years or more remain unsolved and/or have been dragging through the courts as the wheels of justice grind ever more slowly.
The murder of AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi remains unsolved, close to seven years after the fact.
The murder of state prosecutor Joan Kagezi is another of those where details are still trickling into the courts years later and there are many more on the books. After some of these crimes, government promised to install cameras alongside other measures to arrest the trend.
The cameras were delivered but this hasn’t stopped the shooters nor does it seem to have contributed to accelerating the pace of investigations.
According to the Annual Police Crime Report 2023, crimes of murder by shooting grew by 7.5 per cent countrywide.
Of the 300 incidents recorded, 57 cases were taken to Court, 73 cases were not proceeded with while 170 cases are still under inquiry.
Add to that the backlog from years before and you begin to see why the citizenry seem to have lost faith in the ability of law enforcement to provide timely investigation, and perhaps why last Sunday in Lungujja, Kampala, some residents chose to take matters into their own hands to take down those who keep killing with impunity.
It is a sad, and almost now accepted, state of affairs that some of the reports relating to the gun violence will either be long in coming or may never see the light of day.
If the powers that be are really committed to ending gun violence, then the perpetrators of these crimes must be made to see that there are consequences attached to these crimes.
If this doesn’t happen soon, then we will be caught in a loop where murders become more daring and frequent, with the resultant total breakdown in law and order where no one feels safe.
