Police officers probed for conniving with extortionists

The Kampala Metropolitan Police commander Moses Kafeero has summoned the officer in charge of the Kimwanyi Police Post in Wandegeya following complaints of extortion by the officers using a gang of men who allegedly harass civilians. 

During an interaction with teachers from private schools who were undergoing a patriotism training course at Kaazi Camping Grounds, some teachers complained of the Police using men in civilian attire to extort and harass civilians. 

The teachers said more often the Police officers send out the men who arrest civilians at random and come up with trumped-up criminal charges against their victims intended to intimidate them into paying bribes. 

Lt Col Edith Nakalema the head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit who delivered a paper on how teachers can join the campaign to fight corruption promised the trainees that she was going to follow the matter with the commander of the Kampala Metropolitan Police, saying such practices were staining the name of the government and oppressing innocent civilians. 

When contacted, Kafeero said that he had been contacted by Nakalema about the complaints and that he had straight away started handling the matter. 

He said he had already summoned the officer in charge to explain the accusations. In addition, Kafeero said that he had sent a team to the surrounding communities to pick more information about the accusations. 

"We are not stopping at Kimwanyi, we are going to move even in other areas and we want to dig further to the core of the problem," Kafeero explained. 

Missa Nabatanzi, one of the victims said Police officers working with a gang of men arrested her boyfriend during the COVID-19 lockdown while traveling on a bodaboda and extorted money from him without any criminal charges. She said she had abruptly developed complications and the boyfriend rushed her to a nearby clinic but the doctor prescribed them drugs and he was supposed to buy them from Wandegeya.

"I had undergone an operation and abruptly developed a high fever, the doctor recommended that I undergo an evacuation but the drugs had to be procured from Wandegeya," Nabatanzi explained.

She said at about 10:00 am, the boyfriend hired a bodaboda rider to Wandegeya and they were intercepted at Kimwanyi near the Eastern Gate of Makerere University they were intercepted by men. She said they dragged him off the bodaboda and let the rider go and took him (passenger) to the Police post.

"They handed him over to the Police officers at the post who locked him up," she said. According to Nabatanzi, the officers took his wallet, phone, and other items but he managed to communicate with her.

"I was in a bad condition but I was forced to hire another bodaboda to find my boyfriend but everyone was shocked to see me walking but holding my tummy because I had a lot of pain," she explained.

Later, Nabatanzi said, she was forced to pay the officers sh120,000, which was meant to buy the drugs.

"We surrendered all the money he was supposed to use to buy the drugs. We returned to the doctor and explained, he was so kind that he drove back to Wandegeya and bought me the required drugs on credit because I needed urgent treatment," she said.

"As a patriot in training, I have discovered that Police officers, not only in Wandegeya but other places commit a lot of atrocities to members of the public by involving gangs that don't discriminate during their operations but because their motive is to extort money from people," she explained.