David Kibirige
22 August 2002
On Aug. 8, more than 50 armed plain-clothed operatives raided the Ministry of Internal Affairs offices on Jinja Road.
It was difficult to ascertain to which organ they belonged, since they did not identify themselves.
All exits in and out of the ministry were sealed, and after more than three hours, two people were arrested and whisked off to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters.
These were Florence Kalimagezi, the deputy passport control officer in the Immigration Department, and Eunice Kisembo, the legal officer.
Two days before their arrest, the two had received threatening calls, allegedly for "stepping on big people's toes" when they arrested a notorious criminal.
Last month at Entebbe International Airport, the Joint Anti-terrorism Taskforce (JAT) arrested one Milly Sarah Mulindwa allegedly for child trafficking.
For some time the Immigration Department had been running battles with Mulindwa.
It is said that every time they arrested her in a passport-related scam, people "from above" would intervene and get her released.
According to immigration officials, in 1998 officials from the Danish Embassy wrote to the Immigration Department expressing concern about Mulindwa's activities.
When she was arrested last month, the Immigration Department decided to have her prosecuted.
As Legal Officer, Kisembo would be in charge of this.
In an interview with The Monitor, Aug. 13, Kisembo, who is presently held at Luzira Remand Prison, said she had earlier received calls from Mulindwa threatening to "deal with" her.
"Why don't you people know your limits? Very soon your days will be numbered," Mulindwa allegedly told her.
Other workers at the Immigration Department corroborated these allegations.
But immigration officials refused to back off, and Kisembo had Mulindwa prosecuted at Nakawa Magistrate's Court in July.
She was remanded to Luzira, but was mysteriously released a few days later, under circumstances that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is now investigating.
Who got her out and how, is the million-dollar question?
After she came out, Mulindwa is said to have frequented the Immigration Department (ID), asking other workers t tell her the registration number for Kisembo's car.
Minister of State for Internal Affairs, Sarah Namusoke Kiyingi told The Monitor Aug. 14 that she had been told about Mulindwa's release.
"The Commissioner of Immigrations [Pearl Katumba Mutibwa] came to me and raised the issue of Mulindwa having been released under unclear circumstances," Kiyingi said.
"I told her to forward the file to me, but she has not done so up to now."
The minister said she had been told that Mulindwa was "a dangerous person".
"No one has the powers to remove people from prison unless it is court," Kiyingi said.
"We want to find out if it was a court order that got her out, and if so whether it was genuine. I am waiting for the report from the commissioner. If we find that she was wrongly pulled out of prison, then whoever did so will account."
The minister however said she did not think Mulindwa had engineered the arrest of the two immigration officers.
Prior to the raid, immigration workers say they had been warned that they were treading on "some big toes".
When it happened, about eight people stormed Kalimagezi's office, and seized all documents.
At the same time others were ransacking Kisembo's office.
There was commotion, as the security operatives (hard to identify because they were not in uniform) locked all gates and frisked whoever was inside.
Passports that Kisembo and Kalimagezi had been verifying were confiscated.
Kalimagezi was accused of authorising the issuance of a passport to a person who didn't have a Local Council recommendation letter.
In emergency cases however, The Monitor was told, it is normal to by-pass the LC bureaucracy, and use only a reference letter from a "person of authority" to issue passports.
At around 4.30 p.m., the two were driven to CID headquarters, where they were told to undress for security checks.
"We were dehumanized. Up to now I feel naked in front of anyone," says Kisembo.
One of the ladies, who was having her period, was ordered to remove her sanitary pads, least she had hidden some documents "in there".
"After some hours, I pleaded with them to at least get me some toilet paper since they had removed the sanitary pads, but the lady told me that that was only the beginning," she says.
CID boss Elizabeth Kuteesa denied on Aug. 14 that her officers had harassed the women in any way.
"One was sick and the officers bought her some tablets for first aid. They even used their own money to buy them sodas," she said.
Kuteesa said she did not think the two were undressed, and thought they were only making the allegations to win public sympathy.
The women also said they were told to sign statements prepared by interrogation officers, with express orders not to read through them.
However Kisembo, who holds a masters degree in Law refused, saying she would rather die than sign something she hadn't read.
The statement alleged that Kisembo had been found in possession of five hundred passports.
When she refused to sign it, the officers revised the figure to 147. She eventually relented and signed, but the lawyers were not allowed to look at it.
By this time more than twenty lawyers had swarmed the CID offices, demanding that the suspects only make statements in their presence.
CID officers finally gave in and the duo signed the statements, after which they were driven to CPS.
"At CPS we were told that we were not supposed to see visitors, or get any food. We were separated from the other suspects and put in our own cell," recalls Kisembo.
The next day the lawyers, led by one Patrick Nyakana, and Godfrey Zziwa of Zziwa and Muwanguzi Company Advocates, were again refused permission to see the suspects.
Police also refused to disclose in which court their clients would be charged, so the lawyers deployed people at all courts in Kampala in case they were sneaked out.
At around 3 p.m., they were put in a special hire taxi and driven to Buganda Road Court, about 100 metres from the Central Police Station.
A special court session was convened, and the two were charged with "abuse of office".
They are currently remanded at Luzira, but insist that their only crime was to apprehend a criminal with connections.
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