Who is killing Kampala's special hire taxi drivers?

By Alfred Byenkya

Kaweesa was murdered, his body dumped by the roadside and his car stolen. Other special hire drivers have suffered a similar fate

Sifa Nakiwala, 30, is finding it hard to cope with life after unknown thugs undressed and brutally murdered her husband, Lawrence Kaweesi, 54.

On December 6, 2014, Kaweesi was killed and his body dumped in Kasangati on the Kira-Namugongo road. A week later, the Police discovered the body and took it to Mulago Hospital mortuary. He was buried in Bbira, Wakiso district, where he had bought land for his first wife and mother to his 10 children.

The couple was renting a one-room house in Dobbi Zone, Kalerwe. Their three daughters are all under six years of age. Nakiwala is a cleaner with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

Nakiwala told Sunday Vision that life has been hard since her husband was killed. “How am I going to look after my children? I have three daughters. The youngest is six months old. I was not prepared for the burden of a breadwinner,” she narrates tearfully.

Nakiwala wants the Police to investigate the killing and bring the murderers to book. “They have left me in agony because I am suffering.

I wake up at 5:00am and come back home at around 10:00am. This is a casual job which cannot satisfy our needs,” she says.

Nakiwala adds that she knew that her husband would be killed because thugs had attempted to kill him several times. “He told me that he is not safe because some people wanted to kill him because of his vehicle, but I thought he was joking,” she adds.

Specialhire drivers in Kampala speak Sunday Vision visited the drivers at the different stages where they operate in the city.
They too say that they are hurt by the death of their colleagues.

In a previous incident, the drivers were shocked when another driver, Saadi Kiggundu, 50, was hired, then killed. His relatives found out that he had been buried at the KCCA cemetery in Kirinya because he had no documentation on his person.

Tonny Semyalo, the owner of the Ipsum vehicle registration number UAV 294A, told Sunday Vision that he still has hope of recovering his vehicle.

Semyalo’s vehicle was stolen from Kiggundu before the latter was strangled.

“I have hope that my vehicle will be recovered because I have clues on the whereabouts of the thugs who are doing this. I even have their numbers, but I fear to contact them because they are armed,” he says.
 
Semyalo says he does not want his photo to appear in the press because he fears the gang that killed his colleague could trace him. Kiggundu was working on William Street opposite Standard Chartered Bank and resided in Katwe, a Kampala suburb.

Isa Muyingo, a special hire driver working at Total fuel station opposite Qualicel bus terminal in Kampala, says they have lost four Ipsum vehicles and four drivers.

He says the latest victim was Mulangira Tebandeke. He is being treated at a location Muyingo refuses to divulge because the thugs who vanished with the vehicle recently thought they had killed him.

“He was hired from this stage three times by a person who posed as a regular client. The client called him and requested to be picked up from Entebbe Airport. Tebandeke was strangled by this client on Entebbe highway near Ranch on the Lake restaurant where he was found lying in a pool of blood,” he says.

At the time Sunday Vision asked to visit Tebandeke where he had been hospitalised, he had been discharged.

“These thugs want to finish him off. They thought they had killed him,” Muyingo adds.
“What they do is that they hire you and deceive you that they have a patient they want to take to hospital. They can choose to strangle you along the way or from a secret location,” says one driver who prefers to remain anonymous. He adds that one of the gang leaders has a house on Rubaga Road near Super FM offices.

Drivers want a Police report A survey carried out by Sunday Vision shows that most of the killings happened between November 2014 and January 2015.

Livingstone Kawuulu, a specialhire driver working at Wandegeya stage,says the killings usually happen during the festive season. He says they have lost three drivers to car thieves since 2011.

“In December 2012, we lost our colleague, Maali Eteganya and the recent victim is Bugingo, a brother to the acting Chief Justice, Steven Kavuma,” he discloses.

Like the others, Bugingo was called by a client to go and pick him from Entebbe. He was murdered and his vehicle stolen.

Patrick Kyangwa, a driver at the William Street stage, says the Police is not doing their work. “We partly blame security agencies for not doing enough to protect us from these criminals. We need to earn our keep so we cannot stop working late,” he says.

Police response

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango says car thefts and killing of specialhire drivers are isolated cases that should not scare Ugandans from doing this type of work.

“We are investigating this issue and have directed the Flying Squad Unit to handle this matter. Some suspects have been arrested and prosecuted,” he says.

Onyango adds that the Police cannot stop the drivers from working at night because there is no law that stops people from working as they wish.

On January 25, 2013, the body of another specialhire taxi operator, a resident of Gulama, Goma division I Mukono municipality, Daniel Kafeero, was dumped near an incomplete building at Nakabago village. The assailants took his car, a Toyota Raum registration number UAQ 194Y.

Henry Ayebare, the officer in charge of criminal investigations at Mukono Police Station, said the driver could have been strangled by people who hired him.