My Last Word: Could Late Kaweesi Killers have Saved
Him from a Lifetime Embarrassment that was Unstoppably Looming!
By Stanley Ndawula -
March 24,
2017
President
Museveni, Chibita and Kayihura
KAMPALA, Uganda: Today
last week (Friday 17th March) at Kulambiro, a Kampala suburb,
heartless creatures penned a full stop to the energetic, pragmatic senior
Police Officer and my neighbor, AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi’s life. On Tuesday
this week, he was laid to rest back home of Kitwekyanjovu in Lwengo District.
RIEP.
At his burial and the days preceding it, great people from
all walks of life came together as a family to celebrate the life of a
celebrated officer. Sheiks, Catholic Bishops, Anglican Bishops and clergy came
together to pray for Kaweesi’s peaceful landing before his creator. To sum it
up all, the Late Kaweesi’s sendoff was highly of great honour and prestigious.
However, had he lived a little bit longer, in my opinion of
course, he would probably have lost such overwhelming respect from all-over
Uganda and the EA region. And indeed, upon his demise, many of the esteemed
Ugandans mentioned above could have feared to associate with him and or his
casket. Reason? Read on…
That President Museveni on Thursday summoned Gen. Kale
Kayihura, DPP Michael Chibita, the infamous Wamala murder case Investigating
Officer (I.O) William Okalanyi, the Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO) and a few
lower detective officers that managed the initial investigations in the
February 3rd 2012 callous murder, is an old story.
That the fallen officer was repeatedly accused of involvement
and or sabotaging of the same case, is among the oldest stories, especially to
the Investigator ardent readers. What then is the story? One would wonder.
Well, the story is that the Late Andrew Felix Kaweesi had grown ripe and mature
for prosecution and possible imprisonment.
In the Thursday meeting the reportedly acrimonious President
Museveni had wondered why on earth, Police and Public Prosecution department
had ‘failed’ to conclude the case yet with glaring evidence pointing at who
could have murdered the businessman, Wilberforce Wamala, his Shamba-boy Sadique
Mugerwa and later in 2013, the prime suspect/witness, Hassim Ssali at Mutungo and
Bukasa police cells respectively.
Whereas the main case of Wamala and Sadique had
‘successfully’ been mismanaged, the revelation by Makindye Chief Magistrate’s
Court that Hassim Ssali had been murdered and didn’t commit suicide in
detention cells as earlier claimed by police, turned everything back onto the
investigation road. Whoever had killed Ssali had a hand in Wamala’s murder.
Period.
And among the people mentioned in the Ssali murder, the Late
Kaweesi is on top of the list. The allegations that he was involved are not
merely narrated to detectives. They are lined in two extra-judicial statements
on the file. One was sworn by an eyewitness at Bukasa police post and the other
was penned by a police officer who was planted at the station to own and defend
the fatal incident.
This was a story that had been scheduled to be uploaded in
these lines on Friday but was ‘killed’ by Kaweesi’s untimely demise on the same
day… “I saw Kaweesi and others entering the cells with three cans of
chloroform…” reads in part, the extrajudicial statement that was recorded both
on paper and video by Makindye Chief Magistrate Richard Mafabi on July 13th2016.
Mafabi later died mysteriously after a brief headache.
The attempted ‘murder’ of the murder case files
In November last year after completing their perusal, the
Director of Public Prosecution’s office returned the late Wamala case files to
the police. The covering letter and report were addressed to the Investigating
Officer CP William Okalanyi. About two to three weeks ago, the family learnt
that the files had been removed from the Investigating officer by Erasmus
Turyahuka.
Turyahuka heads the police legal department. On contacting
him, he alleged that the files had been sent to him by mistake. “I didn’t have
anything to do with the files and I don’t know why they were sent to me, so I
sent them back to the CIID headquarters.” This however, was a very strange
statement coming from a person who studied law.
To this end, the Wamala family had been following the files
and they were aware that they had been addressed to the Investigating Officer,
not Turyahuka. Why was he denying is anyone’s wonder. It is known that
Okalanyi and Turyahuka work in the same office. Given the benefit of the doubt,
if Turyahuka was correct, he would still have provided the family with the
correct information about the status of the file. He had clear knowledge on who
was tasked with handling the case. However, that was far from the case.
On getting knowledge that the family had this information, he
changed his statement. When he was visited by a family delegate, this time he
gave a contradictory statement that the files were with the IGP. He added that
the IGP was to hold a meeting regarding the same. Surprisingly On the 13th of
March another contradiction was that the family delegate found out that files
were in Kibuli CID HQ on M/s Grace Akullo’s desk.
On attaining that information, on the 7th of
March 2017 the widow, communicated with IGP via text informing him of the above
discrepancies, she requested that the files be returned to the I.O to complete
the case. The IGP never responded.
Originally, after the meeting with the President, the DPP,
IGP and the CIID Director were charged with following up the process to
finality. Hence the President’s statement to the widow thus; “return to London
and I will call you once the investigations are complete.” That was in May
2015.
The report from the DPP is understood to have been explicit
on the extrajudicial statements that incriminated the fallen Kaweesi in Hassim
Ssali’s murder in Bukasa police cells. At the inquest, the coroner, had also
explored and concluded that the suspect had been murdered and not hanged as the
police pathologists alleged in the post mortem report.
The police did not appeal against the coroner’s findings but
instead put the file in abeyance. Neither did they pass it onto the
Investigating Officer as requested by the DPP. However, when it was time for
the files to be returned to the DPP’s office they rejoined them.
With two extrajudicial statements one from a police officer
incriminating police in Ssali’s murder, both the coroner’s and the DPP’s
reports clearly gave guidance and pointers to the direction of where the
investigation was heading. To the family, the investigation was home and
dry. However, the turn of events since, the least it is disappointing and
worst, very hurting to them.
I didn’t know the late Wamala but I was touched by the
senseless way his life was taken. He could have been my brother or anyone’s
brother. Hearing and observing every effort the widow has made to get justice
and the road blocks and all forms of barriers that were laid in her way, I got
drunk on helping her seek justice. It is therefore, not surprising that they
have instead decided to line me up among the suspects!
I think it is in the interest of those who do not want the
Late Wamala’s case resolved to shock the country with the murder of Andrew
Felix Kaweesi. I also think the next stage is to find someone or people to
blame for his death.
The Thursday Meeting
On the 7th of March 2017, the widow was in
communication with the President’s PPS seeking for an appointment. She wanted
to follow up on the reminder she had forwarded the big man. The PPS reassured
that the First Citizen had received her letter and would respond.
Indeed on Thursday, which now turns out to be Kaweesi’s
demise eve, the President made well on his promise by summoning the above
mentioned team. The President was not only bitter but further lamented the
criminal infiltration in police. He was to reiterate the same at Kaweesi’s
vigil two days later. The tough talking Museveni gave Kayihura and DPP only one
week to have the accused aligned before justice.
Kaweesi did not live to face this. On Friday, Gen. Kayihura,
who looked every inch disturbed by the Thursday meeting, summoned the I.O and
the other detectives he went with but this time, he also invited on board, some
of the suspects in police uniform! Hardly had he gone through the introduction
of the agenda, a call came in and, the caller was informing him of the sudden
death of his blue-eyed boy, the Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew
Felix Kaweesi vide assassination means.
For the last five years, the late Wamala’s family have sought
after justice through the law and their persistence along with their pain
fueling their zeal, led them to gain President Museveni’s attention on the
matter, and are still waiting.
The late Wamala’s widow Elizabeth has been publicly open
about the case and its developments. To me the most emotive issue about this
death as I came to understand it, is how to explain to the children what
happened to their father. As a father, I understand these sentiments because I
lost my wife. I rest my case. Sleep Well Felix
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