By Executive Editor

A report from the Regional Police Commander (RPC) Kampala Metropolitan Police East (KMP/E) pinned the Head of Investigation at the State House Anti-Corruption Unit on the property comprised in LRV 1837 Folio 11 Plot 106 Land at Old Kira Road. 

This follows an investigation into a house-breaking that occurred in January 2024. Jackson Tweheyo headed the team that orchestrated the break-in.

BACKGROUND

The question of ownership of the said land was settled by the courts of law under HCCS No. 106 of 2011. The interests of the successors in the title of the decree holder are legal and lawful. A permanent injunction was issued, restraining the former owner, Mary Orech, and all those claiming under her from trespassing on the property. The commander, KMP, was instructed to restrain Orech and others from trespassing on the property. That the deployment on the ground, if any, should be to protect the interest of the registered propriator, Yusuf Ssemakula, to enable him to enjoy quiet possession. 

However, on January 5, 2024, at around 12 a.m., the Division Police Commander of Kira Road Police Division, Boniface Kinyera, connived with Evelyn Atim and Simon Eliba (administrators of Mary Lucy Orech), together with Tweheyo and Sharma Hadijah, and broke the gate into the property and arrested private guards and workers of the Ssemakula Yusuf. They were detained at the Kira Road Police Division. On January 7, Tweheyo was at the division and preferred charges of aggravated robbery against the private guards of Ssemakula. Their files were rushed to City Hall, where they were charged and remanded. 

“The actions of Bonifance Kinyera, Sharma Hadijah, and Tweheyo Jackson were unlawful, unprofessional, and fraudulent,” reads part of the report. Kinyera would later be sacked as DPC of the Kira Road Police Division. It was then that the IGP instructed the Commander of Field Force Unit (FFU) to ensure that a deloyment is effected to enforce the aforesaid directives and to implement the earlier cleared private guards of Ssemakula to ensure peace and sanity on the said property. 

“Based on the above, it was wrong for Kinyera Bonifance, Sharma Hadija, and Tweheyo Jackson to charge Ssemakula Yusuf’s workers, and they should therefore not be prosecuted, as prosecuting them contravenes the guidance of the IGP, Director CID, the Director Legal, the Director Operations, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Director of Public Prosecutions, who closed all the previous files upon thorough investigations,” D/SSP Benson Wathum’s report reads. D/SSP Wathum is the Regional CID Officer, KMP/East. The DPP later withdrew the malicious charges against Ssemakula’s guards.

Based on the above findings, minister of Internal Affairs Gen. Kahinda Otafire ordered the Police Authority with immediate sack SSP Jackson Tweheyo from the Unit and be charged for disobeying lawful orders. In his letter, Minister Otafire said, “I have received the status report and there’s no doubt Uganda police officers have objected to respect court orders in their scope of operations, this serves to direct you to take action against the offending officers”.

In his conclusion, D/SSP Wathum advised the aggrieved party to pursue civil remedy to challenge the judgment and orders of the High Court that were issued over the latter in 2011.