Detective analysed Okello's phone and bank records — here's what he discovered

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 GGABA MURDER TRIAL 

By Joseph Kizza

Detective Inspector Aggrey Mpamizo's latest assignment was straightforward.

Process court orders, obtain call data records, mobile money statements, aas well as the KYC (Know Your Customer) and card history of a phone number belonging to a man under murder investigation.

The 57-year-old Kampala-based police officer (pictured below) was also tasked with obtaining court orders for three bank accounts held by the suspect.

▪️ 'Knives, pliers and phones': Court hears more testimonies

By the time Mpamizo received the first set of instructions from Detective Assistant Superintendent of Police James Eserait of Kabalagala Police Division on April 6 this year, Ugandans were still reeling from the shocking daytime killing of four toddlers at a day care in Ggaba (Makindye division) in the capital Kampala four days prior.

The suspect at the centre of it all: little-known Christopher Okello Onyum.

If he was unknown then, Okello has over the course of nearly three weeks since gained notoriety for his alleged role in the murder of Ryan Odeke, Gideon Eteku, Keisha Agenrwoth and Ignatius Sseruyange at Early Childhood Development Programme Centre, Ggaba on April 2.

When his trial got under way last week, he pleaded not guilty to all four counts of murder.

▪️ Experts who examined Okello testify in court

Since then, the prosecution team, led by chief state attorney Jonathan Muwaganya, have brought in a growing cast of witnesses to bolster their case against the defendant.

One of them is Mpamizo, who testified on Tuesday — the sixth day of the trial. He is attached to Kampala Metropolitan Police, Central Police Station.

He told court that after receiving further instructions from detective Eserait on April 9, he went to Makindye Chief Magistrates Court, where he swore an affidavit and secured court orders for inspection and retrieving of copies of information from MTN Uganda Limited and Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited regarding Okello.

The phone number under scrutiny was 0769582620, belonging to the suspect.

After receiving the requested-for information from the telecom company and the bank (Kabalagala branch), the detective proceeded to analyse both sets of information, after which he issued a seven-page report addressed to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on April 17.

▪️ Court hears details about where the accused lived

On the stand, Mpamizo explained in detail what he found out during analysis of the data he had received.

When he checked the phone number statement, for January 1, 2026 to April 2, 2026, he said he established that the said number [of the accused] had a total credit of sh6,442,995 and a total debit of sh6,299,728. 

This amount of credit was found to have come from three sources:

▪️ Stanbic Bank by way of bank to wallet originating from an account number in the name of Onyum Christopher Okello.
▪️TerraPay, which is an international money transfer platform that operates globally
▪️an individual via mobile phone

▪️ 'He charged at me with a knife but I ducked for cover'

Mpamizo told court he analysed the communication and movement of the suspect's number on April 1, the eve of the day of the deadly attack at the day care. 

He established that that day, the number for the accused received calls from two individuals while the accused was at a location in Kyanja: one of the numbers called him at 7:55am and then at 8:18am.

While still in Kyanja, another call came through from a different number later at 6:17pm.

On the day of the incident of crime (April 2), according to the detective's analysis of the movement pattern, he established that the accused's number moved from Kyanja, where he received an SMS from MTN Mobile Money at 3:39am, before moving to the next location Eaton Clock Tower at 8:21am.

The same number proceeded to Bunga 2 from 8:44am up to 8:59am. And finally at Ggaba Beach from 11:07am to 11:38am.

▪️ Prosecution witness gives chilling account of fateful day

In his testimony, Mpamizo said that according to the call data record for the suspect's number, he ceased to make any communication at 11:38am on April 2 from location Ggaba Beach.

He explained that in telecom speak, when a call reflects, for example Ggaba Beach, it refers to the name of the telecom mast closest to where the call is made.

Meanwhile, the detective told court that at 11:11am on April 2, the number of the accused made a transfer of sh195,000 to a mobile number registered in the name Annet Agoe. The sender's number was indicated as at Ggaba Beach at the time.

(Annet Odong Agoe, the coordinator of the day care where the brutal attack happened, testified in court last week.)

"I also observed that the only direct voice call made by that number on April 2 was an outgoing voice call to a police emergency number 256323-112-112 at 11:25am from Ggaba Beach. It lasted for 39 seconds," testified Mpamizo.

"Uganda has two emergency numbers: 999, that is the national emergency number. Then international emergency number 112. These two numbers are toll-free."

These emergency calls are routed to a national emergency call centre located at the Police Headquarters in Naguru.

"Whether one uses 999 or 112, it will be reflected to the national emergency call centre as 112 because of its international nature and this information will be reflected on the data of the telecom that provides the routing," explained the police detective.

▪️ Ggaba murder suspect pleads not guilty to all four charges

Meanwhile, the police detective told court he also analysed the call data to establish which handset the suspect's number was accommodated. 

He also analysed the KYC for the suspect's number, which revealed it was registered on November 3, 2025 by Okello using his national ID.

The same national ID, Mpamizo found out, was used in the time of opening three bank accounts on November 5, 2025: a Uganda Shilling (UGX) account and two US Dollar (USD) accounts.

He discovered that at the time of opening the bank accounts, there were initial deposits for each account: sh1,330,800 on the UGX account and $2,100 and $3,900 on the respective USD accounts.

"I established that Onyum Christopher Okello provided information in the account opening documents that he was a farmer and a resident of Ggaba," Mpamizo told court.

"I established that the UGX account between November 2025 to April 16, 2026 had a total credit of sh20,243,864 and a total debit of sh20,135,968, hence a closing balance of 107,896."

Court heard that while there were various sources of credit, the majority were cash deposits totalling sh16,195,675 while sh4,000,000 was deposited via the suspect's MTN number.

The detective also told court that both USD accounts received a one-time credit deposit at the time of opening and the funds were gradually withdrawn over the period ending March 17, 2026, to a closing balance of $0 each.

Court admitted Mpamizo's report, together with its attached documents from Stanbic Bank and MTN Uganda, as prosecution exhibits. The defence team had objected specifically to the admissibility of the documents originating from the bank and the telecom, arguing that the witness did not author them nor ever worked with the entities.

But in her submission, Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha, the presiding judge, reasoned that the defence did not object to the various court orders that led to the acquisition of those documents. And that the defence attorney also did not object to the witness' report, which is an analysis of the documents the defence was objecting to.

The judge said she found that the documents were "properly obtained by the witness and he was competent to tender in the report that analysed them".

Today (Wednesday), court will hear the technical evidence from Assistant Superintendent of Police Barnabas Harerimana (pictured below), a 36-year-old forensic biologist with six full years of experience in this field.

He is attached to the Directorate of Forensic Services under the Department of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Explosives Analysis (CBRNe-A).

For this case, he was tasked with authoring a DNA report of the biological exhibits collected from the scene of crime.

After Harerimana's testimony in court on Tuesday was cut short due to time constraints, Justice Khaukha, invited him back today to give his evidence.