Kayihura regrets Bebe Cool shooting

Feb 02, 2010

THE Inspector General of Police has regretted the shooting of local musician Bebe Cool and members of his entourage at the weekend.

By Herbert Ssempogo and Eddie Ssejjoba

THE Inspector General of Police has regretted the shooting of local musician Bebe Cool and members of his entourage at the weekend.

“I am really sorry. I regret what happened. I am wondering whether the force used by the Police was justified,” Kayihura said at Nsambya Hospital in Kampala where he visited the hospitalised musician yesterday.

A team of detectives, he disclosed, had been appointed to investigate the matter.

“They will determine what happened and what went wrong. I am taking this matter seriously, not only because of its gravity but also because Police officers must understand the force to be applied in a given situation,” he said.

Kayihura, escorted by Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba and her deputy, Vincent Ssekate, stressed that there were principles that guided the use of the gun.

The matter has been transferred from Jinja Road Police Station, where it was initially handled, to Kampala Metropolitan.

Bebe Cool was on Saturday morning shot at Centenary Park near Oasis shopping mall, along with his bodyguards, Abbas Kobobyo and Allan Masengere. A policeman, David Oluka, was also hit.

Alfred Aichikan, a special Police constable attached to Jinja Road Police Station, is still in detention over the shooting.

Yesterday, Bebe Cool briefed the Police boss about the incident, saying the shooting occurred after leaving Effendy’s entertainment centre where he had a “misunderstanding” with two other musicians, Weasel and Radio.

“After leaving Effendy’s, we walked to Nakumatt to buy some items. A policeman escorted us. He is the one who was shot along with me and my friends,” said Bebe Cool.

Kayihura later visited Kobobyo, one of the wounded bodyguards admitted in the same hospital, who told him policemen at Nakumatt asked them to identify themselves.

“Bebe Cool identified himself and said almost all policemen knew him. However, one of them was not satisfied. Despite Bebe Cool’s pleas, he stepped backwards before the shooting.”

Kobobyo was shot four times, in the thighs and both hands, while Bebe Cool was hit in the thighs.

Independent reports said the shoot-out followed an earlier scuffle at Effendy’s between Bebe Cool and his rivals. The Police are looking for Weasel and Radio to record statements, according to Jinja Road Police CID chief, Herbert Wanyoto. The two are reportedly in Rwanda for a concert.

“We want to get their version of the story. We might get useful information.”

In a separate incident, the Police are hunting for artiste Robert Kyagalanyi, popularly known as Bob Wine, for allegedly assaulting a bodyguard of the Makindye deputy RDC at a local pub in Kabalagala.

Police deputy spokesperson Vincent Ssekate said the incident occurred on Friday night at CHOGM Pub, where the singer and his group performed.

Cpl. Muhammad Wasswa, an escort to Kayondo Mulowoza, has lodged a complaint against the singer at Kabalagala Police Station.

According to Ssekate, Bobi Wine assaulted the guard when he told the group to stop smoking suspected marijuana in a public place.

Wasswa alleges that Bobi Wine and his group became violent and assaulted him in the presence of his boss. During the scuffle, a soldier who also was in the audience, shot in the air, forcing the artiste to abandon the show and take off.

The Police later arrived and seized a car they suspect belongs to Bobi Wine. It was still kept at the station yesterday.

“We cannot establish what these artistes were smoking but according to the complainants, the group turned violent when they were told to stop smoking,” Ssekate said.

“We are looking for Bobi Wine. We need him to come and make a statement in relation to this complaint.”

Contacted on his mobile phone, the singer vehemently denied the accusation, saying the deputy RDC went to the pub at about 3:00am with three armed soldiers and disorganised his show.

“The soldiers, who looked drunk, came and asked me to go and greet their boss where he was seated in the crowd but I refused. They came back and started asking me why I was calling myself the Ghetto president yet the RDC was the president of Makindye.”

Bobi Wine accused the bodyguards of provoking him and his group members and for threatening him with guns.

“They roughed me up on the stage but my fans intervened and pushed them and one fell. I resumed my performance but later I heard gunshots and ran away. I jumped on a bodaboda because I realised that these men wanted to kill me.”

He said the car that was impounded did not belong to him. He also said he had not received any information that he was wanted by the Police.

Workers at the pub blamed the incident on the armed men. They asked the Police to stop them from carrying weapons in entertainment places.

“We have been complaining that security men must not come here armed but we have not been helped,” one of the workers told The New Vision.

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