Crime gangs name policemen on hit list

Jul 30, 2014

Last week, the deputy commander of the Police flying squad in Kawempe was gunned down at 8:00pm in Kawempe, Kawala.

By Joseph Mutebi

On Friday night last week, Corporal David Kyambadde, the deputy commander of the Police flying squad in Kawempe was gunned down at 8:00pm local time in Kawempe, Kawala.

Kyambadde was killed on duty when security operatives that night, after acting on a tip off, thwarted a mission in which thugs were targeting to kill a businesswoman.

In May this year, Abdul Ssebagala, another policeman, was gunned down in Lungijja as he made his way home.

During the burial of Kyambadde at his ancestral home in Lubimbiri-Keesongedde in Mubende district, Kampala Metropolitan police commander Andrew Felix Kaweesi who attended the burial revealed that armed thugs operating in Kampala had a hit list of security operatives.

The two policemen were on the hit list. While Kyambadde was killed on duty, Ssebagala’s death is testament that armed thugs have become more ruthless and vicious than ever before.

Kaweesi however revealed that the thug who shot Kyambadde acted as if on cue after clearly identifying him.

On May 23 two men trailed Ssebagala from the city centre on a motorcycle. The Flying Squad operative was in the company of his wife whom he had picked from work on Kimathi Avenue and was heading home in Lungujja.

According to his wife Lillian Nagawa Ssebagala, while they were at a hump in the evening rush hour traffic, with just 200m to reach home, the men rode up to the driver’s side and shot him point blank in the chest.

The men then turned and rode back in the direction they had come. The operative breathed his last just as he was reaching Lubaga hospital where he had been rushed.

A woman who owns a cosmetics nearby survived a bullet after the fleeing thugs shot at her when she came out of her shop to see what had happened to Kyambadde. Everything had happened in a flash of lightning.

Police though is not taking things lying. During an operation in June, a man, Bakari Kawooya, who is believed to have been one of those that murdered Kyambadde, according to police spokesperson Patrick Onyango, was arrested.

Onyango revealed that during investigations into Kyambadde’s murder, witnesses near the scene gave a description that matched that of Kawooya who had been on police’s wanted list for long.

Investigations showed that Kawooya and Kymabadde had a history. Kyambadde had once arrested Kawooya with a gun and he was sent to Luzira prison on conviction.

Kawooya is also reported to have sworn to finish him off after accusing him of luring his girlfriend and sending him to jail.

Tasked by Kyambadde's family to explain what had befallen their bread winner, his boss Herman Owomugisha revealed that on Thursday last week the deceased had informed him that he had arrested a soldier selling a gun in Kimombasa, a notorious slum dwelling in Bwaise. 

Shockingly Kyambadde was murdered the following day. He is survived by two widows and eight orphans.

15 policemen on hit list

Sources reveal that the hit list has over 15 policemen of which two are now dead.

The list includes the Police boos himself, Andrew Kaweesi; Faizal Katende (the head of Flying Squad in Kampala), Herman Owomugisha (the overall boss of Flying Squad), Mohammed Kirumira (formerly Nansana police boss), Sam Omara (operations boss in Kampala), Grace Turyagumanawe (overall police operations boss) among others who have declared war on rampaging thugs.

Kaweesi has once again directed that armed thugs will be shot during operations as they seem to have resolved to kill them first.

He also noted that most of these thugs are even more trained than police because they have served in security agencies before.

He also rubbished rumours that the recent killings of policemen are due to misunderstandings amongst them, saying thugs have opened war on them.

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