The Police must be professional

Feb 15, 2009

THE Police have since last week been investigating a bizarre case of suspected ritual murders in which at least three people are believed to have perished in Bwaise, a Kampala city suburb.

THE Police have since last week been investigating a bizarre case of suspected ritual murders in which at least three people are believed to have perished in Bwaise, a Kampala city suburb.

At the centre of the case is a witchdoctor Musa Bogere of Bwaise who is suspected to have murdered at least three people. Bogere, unfortunately died soon after his arrest.

Initially residents recovered a head believed to be of a man wrapped in a polythene bag and dumped on the garbage heap in Kawempe. As Police was investigating the case, residents of Bwaise, which neighbours Kawempe, retrieved two legs from a pit-latrine. Bogere, who had a shrine in the area, was immediately arrested.

Bogere subsequently led the Police to a nearby swamp in Kinubi zone, Bwaise, where the decapitated and decomposing body of a woman was retrieved. More searches in the areas also led to discovery of dog carcasses.

This case raises serious questions about Police investigations. First of all, Bogere was arrested last year with a dog he had slaughtered ostensibly to sell as goat meat. He got off the hook by claiming that he killed the dog in a ritual sacrifice.

Police never did thorough investigations and therefore never found out that Bogere was involved in sinister and criminal activities. Often, Police let hard core criminals off the hook easily because they don’t do thorough investigations.

The death of Bogere, the key suspect in the bizarre case, hours after his arrest, is very disturbing. Was Bogere eliminated as part of a cover-up or was he tortured to death? The Police owe the country an explanation. Bogere’s death seriously jeopardises the investigations.

There were reports that after the two legs were retrieved from the latrine, the Police arrested all suspected witchdoctors in the area, destroyed their shrines and set ablaze their fetishes. The destruction of shrines was unprofessional and tantamount to destruction of potential evidence. Such actions only encourage mob justice that the Police have been campaigning against. Police must carry out investigations professionally.

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