Police to probe iron bar murders

Dec 23, 2010

THE Police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, has deployed Police officers in Mukono district to investigate cases of murder by iron bar hit-men terrorising the area.

By Eddie Ssejjoba
and Justine Kirabo

THE Police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, has deployed Police officers in Mukono district to investigate cases of murder by iron bar hit-men terrorising the area.

The team has camped in Seeta, where incidents of iron bar murders are common.

On Tuesday, the Kampala Metropolitan east regional Police commander, Ivan Nkwasibwe, announced a reshuffle in the Mukono Police in a bid to make the area more secure.

Nkwasibwe said the Police had also deployed additional ‘crime preventors’, 100 per village, in the district.

The developments followed a story carried by New Vision, revealing that several people in the area had been attacked by iron bar thugs in the recent past.

The criminals are suspected to be former Luzira Prison inmates.
Idd Ssenkumbi, the Kampala metropolitan Police spokesman, said the team started work on Tuesday, and vowed that they would not rest until the perpetrators were arrested.

He said the team was also working on allegations that the criminals had circulated anonymous letters in the area, stating that they were still “around and determined to carry out their work”.

The team, comprising officers from the Rapid Response Unit, the Internal Security Organisation and local councils, will also look into claims that the “thugs have a reason and mission for carrying out the murders”, Ssenkumbi said.

“As I talk now, some of our security personnel are engaged in meetings with religious, political and opinion leaders, mapping out strategies on how to deal with the problem. They are getting a lot of information from the public,” he said.

Ssenkumbi said they would also scrutinise a list of former inmates said to be part of the murderous gang.

The Police, however, cautioned residents to avoid politicising the matter.

The iron bar hit men mostly target boda boda riders and women operating in markets, whom they waylay either at night or early in the morning.

Meanwhile, the Police in Mukono have arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of Godfrey Gamwanga, the latest victim of the gang.

Gamwanga was killed on Monday morning on his way to work.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});