Kagezi murder: Agasirwe, Minaana return to court today

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Senior Superintendent of Police Nickson Karuhanga Agasirwe and former Flying Squad Unit (FSU) operative Abdul Noor Ssemujju alias Minaana, who are accused of killing assistant director of public prosecutions Joan Kagezi, return to Nakawa Chief Magistrates’ Court today.

Agasirwe, who is also the former commander of the disbanded Special Operations Unit and Minaana, who describes himself as a peasant, are battling charges of murder.

Under sections 171 and 172 of the Penal Code Act, the offence of murder elicits a maximum sentence of death upon conviction.

The duo will appear before Grade One Magistrate Daphine Ayebare to find out the status of investigations in their matter.

Kagezi was shot dead at about 7:15pm on March 30, 2015, in Kiwatule, a Kampala suburb, as she drove home with her children.

Joan Kagezi.

It is alleged that Agasirwe, 54, a resident of Kiyinda Ward in Kira municipality, Wakiso district, Minaana and others still at large on March 30, 2015, at Kiwatule in Nakawa Division with malice aforethought caused the death of Kagezi.

Agasirwe's arrest

Agasirwe was arrested on May 21, this year, after a convicted former Uganda Peoples Defence Forces soldier, Daniel Kiwanuka Kisekka, told the court that a senior government official named “Nixon” allegedly financed Kagezi’s murder.

Senior Superintendent of Police Nickson Karuhanga Agasirwe. (File)

The 43-year-old Kisekka was handed a 35-year prison term by the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kampala upon his own plea of guilty in the murder of Kagezi.

However, John Kibuuka aka Musa, John Massajjage aka Mubiru Brian and Nasur Abdallah Mugonole, who are on remand in Luzira Prison, have since denied killing Kagezi.

Kisekka claimed under oath that he was told by one of his colleagues, John Kibuuka alias Musa, that a man identified only as “Nixon” had contracted them to execute Kagezi.

While serving as operatives in the Flying Squad Unit, Minaana and Agasirwe were among the eight suspects earlier linked to the brutal assassination of Kagezi.

Minana’s arrest

Minaana, who was arrested in 2017 over the Kagezi murder and later released, was picked up last Thursday by Criminal Investigations Directorate detectives from his home in Galilaya, Kayunga district.

Former Flying Squad Unit (FSU) operative Abdul Noor Ssemujju alias Minaana. (File)

What makes Minaana’s arrest more significant is his deep entanglement in the operations that may have paved the way for Kagezi’s murder.

At the time of Kagezi’s killing, Minaana, who joined Police in an unstructured setting in 2007, was a field operative with the flying squad, and he then worked closely with Agasirwe.

Investigators also discovered that Minaana operated a garage just 600 metres from the crime scene, which sources now allege may have served as a surveillance or planning point.

Earlier investigations carried out jointly by the then Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) now rebranded as Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the UK’s Scotland Yard—flagged the suspicious presence of several known police operatives at the murder scene on the night Kagezi was killed.

The FBI operated an office at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters in Kibuli after the July 2010 Kampala bombings that left over 90 people dead. Kagezi was the lead prosecutor of the 13 suspects implicated.

Other cases

Minaana was arrested in October 2017 on charges of kidnapping a Rwandan refugee, Vincent Kalisa, who had sought asylum in Uganda in 2013. Operatives from CMI picked him up from Nabweru, Wakiso.

Although he was detained for several months, he was eventually released, only to be re-arrested in 2019 on new charges relating to illegal cross-border activities, including clandestine repatriation of Rwandan fugitives.

In one of the cases filed by prosecutors, Minaana and Agasirwe were accused of kidnapping Kalisa from Lukooli village in Luweero District on August 13, 2017.

The two were allegedly armed with firearms and grenades—military-grade weapons reserved for the armed forces—and forcibly returned Kalisa to Rwanda against his will.