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State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) has defended its decision to intervene and cause the arrest of goons and private security guards allegedly involved in the eviction of a family from their property in Ntinda, Kampala.

The suspects, who had been hired by fugitive property dealer Yusuf Semakula, also demolished the property.

The SHACU statement on Thursday, April 4, 2024, evening followed an online article that SHACU says made, “false, baseless and unsubstantiated claims against” it following its operation to arrest and disarm the goons and private guards.

In a statement posted on SHACU’s X, former Twitter, handle, SHACU says: “Our attention has been drawn to an article published on March 29, 2024 in an online publication. The contents of the article are typical works of reactionary and unethical pseudo-journalists, who work with syndicates, perpetuating land grabbing and other corrupt vices in the country. These pseudo-journalists intend to divert, demean, and distract investigations on perpetrators of impunity through blackmail on social media.”

SHACU notes that the article makes several false, baseless, and unsubstantiated claims against the unit.

“Following its recent intervention into a complaint that led SHACU with the help of [the] Police to apprehend and arraign in court five goons and 11 armed personnel of Magnum Private Security Company who had been illegally deployed to evict helpless members of the late Eng. Johnson Orech family from their home on Plot 106, Old Kira Road, Ntinda where they have lived since 1983,” the statement says.

They further noted that the property in question is subject to an ownership dispute that is still pending in the courts of law, between the family of the late Orech on one part and Sulait Semakula and Mutwalib Kabogooza, Steven Mulondo, Israel Seruwagi Salongo and Yusuf Semakula on the other.

SHACU noted that contrary to the author's claim that SHACU ignored court rulings and unlawfully arrested property owners, the unit’s intervention was in response to the Nakawa division, District Security Committee (DSC) emergency meeting that convened on March 5, 2024, and observed that there is a pending appeal over the disputed property, hence the deployment of the private security guards was a breach of a temporary injunction that was pending appeal issued by Court on April 12, 2018.

Also, a violation of the temporary injunction issued on December 23, 2023, by the High Court Land Division vide Civil Suit number 611, of 2023 barring Mulondo, Sseruwagi, and Semakula or their agents from entering accessing, removing, or demolishing any matter or structure or in any way dealing with the suit land comprised in Plot 106, Old Kira Road;

Similar actions of impunity had been taken by one Yusuf Semakula on December 26, 2022, which involved the illegal demolition of the late Orech’s family house. Semakula was arrested and charged in court.

The statement notes that given these considerations, “the DSC meeting resolved that the private guards be removed. SHACU was requested to coordinate with stakeholders to have the same effect. On March 11, 2024, SHACU led an operation at the property, which culminated in the disarming and arrest of the 11 Magnum Private Security guards, who had been hired by the same Yusuf Semakula. The guards were remanded to Luzira Maximum Prison. Semakula has since gone into hiding”.

SHACU says: “Irrespective of the blackmail and intrigue by the reactionaries, we reiterate that SHACU's actions were within the confines of the law. We shall not relent on apprehending perpetrators of impunity against innocent wananchi. The Unit and its officers have not ignored but rather operated in concert with other stakeholders to enforce the status quo on this property, pending disposal of the appeal”.