|
|
Uganda: How Criminals Terrorise City
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Monitor (Kampala)
15 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Zurah Nakabugo, Andrew Bagala & Rodney Muhumuza
Kampala
Next time you find your strong padlock missing from the door, don't punish the maid or blame anyone for having forgotten to place it. It could be some unscrupulous gangsters who have organised themselves so well as to open any padlock using master keys, in broad daylight.
Such is the level of organised crime that has hit mostly Kampala city suburbs in recent weeks. But a thief cannot reign forever. And so a major police crackdown has resulted into the arrest of 350 suspected criminals who are accused of committing crimes ranging from robbery to rape within Kampala, it was revealed yesterday.
The operation, which was called in the wake of rising crime in Kampala city and its suburbs, also recovered two AK47 assault rifles, two pistols, stolen property worth millions of shillings, and master keys that were allegedly used to burglarise.
According to the police, the statements of the suspects, who include at least two women, point to a highly organised cartel of criminals.
At least 15 of the 350 suspects were paraded before reporters at Kawempe Police Station, where the regional police commander for Kampala Extra, Mr Edward Ochom, told journalists that the suspects were "too organised" in the execution of crime.
"We arrested the ring leaders who have been leading us to other suspects and the stolen property. The suspects have been identifying the stolen property from the shops and homes where they have been selling them," Mr Ochom said.
"We have recovered master keys which they have been using to open padlocks and doors. We also recovered chloroform and [the] machetes which they have been using to cut doors."
Almost all the suspects, many of them young people, were said to be unemployed. And some of them, responding to questions from Mr Ochom, confessed before journalists yesterday that it was unlikely that they will quit criminal activity.
Of the 350 suspects who are in police custody, at least 200 were arrested in neighbourhoods within Lubaga Division.
In Nakawa Division, where residents have reported some of the worst nightly terror in recent times, 67 suspected robbers were arrested. Some of the suspects are accused of raping women during robbery.
"These [suspected] thugs used a big stone to force their entry, stole property in the house and later defiled a 16-year-old girl and another younger than her," Mr Ochom said, introducing reporters to 11 men who allegedly committed the crime in a Kawempe neighbourhood.
The police crackdown is still on, Mr Ochom said, adding that some of the suspects have already been charged.
Following a Daily Monitor report on April 19 that armed gangsters were terrorising neighbourhoods in parts of Kampala, the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, ordered all police commanders to be more practical in their operations.
The order was understood to mean that they should spend less time in their offices and more time in the field. It now appears the strategy paid off.
According to the annual crime report of 2007, 1,913 cases of robbery were reported in the urban areas out of 5,666 countrywide - a 31 per cent decrease over 2006. If such massive arrests produce the desired deterrent effect, that trend may change.
Most of the robberies have been blamed on the proliferation of illegal arms and small weapons coupled with many unemployed idlers.
There have been four serious incidents this year so far, resulting in two deaths and two near-fatal injuries, the police say. But the worry for police is that the criminals are employing new tricks.
"They ask [children] to either go through windows or climb over the walls [in return for small pay]," Mr Alex Asiimwe, the deputy police commander for Kiira Road Police Station, said in a recent interview.
"They then ask them to ferry the goods. No one can suspect the kids." He added: "Other groups are using master keys. They go to Kisenyi and make lots of small keys with saws, which they use to open into people's houses. We arrested such people a month ago."
Most of the thefts, according to Mr Asiimwe, are carried out during the day. The robbers are more ruthless at night, waylaying their victims outside their homes as they open their gates or park their cars.
In one incident in Kasubi, narrated by Mr Ochom yesterday, some of the suspects stole property from the house of a university lecturer before dragging his wife to a bush where she was gang-raped.
Surprisingly, the suspects have been selling the stolen property to prominent shop owners in the city. At least 15 television sets, 10 radios, 10 DVD players and numerous mobile phones were recovered from shops at Kizito Towers in Kampala.
Some of the suspects claimed they were detectives in the execution of robbery, Mr Ochom said.
|
"When they reached [the targets], they would remove their phones as if they are calling someone. Then the robbers would attack them and run away...," he said.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
