Uganda: Police to 'shoot to kill' attackers

Amid rising insecurity in the country, the police says it has recovered eight guns and 1,300 bullets. And now they will take a shoot-to-kill approach to thugs, write ZURAH NAKABUGO and JOHNSON TAREMWA

Police says it has recovered a gun and 600 bullets from five suspected thugs, after a raid on a garage in Bakuli, Kampala, on Sunday.

Denis Mangusho, Yusuf Jingo, Jafaali Ddembe, Fred Matovu, and Frank Jumbe reportedly confessed to using the gun in last month’s theft of Shs 200m belonging to Africana forex bureau on Jinja road, Kampala.

Police spokesman Fred Enanga said the suspects stole the money on December 17 from a bullion van on Access road in Kampala. The money was being moved from Bank of Africa to Africana forex bureau.

“The robbers may have connived with some workers inside Bank of Africa because they hit the bullion van and it stopped immediately after leaving the bank. They [stole] Shs 200m out of Shs 300m that was being transported,” he said.

Nobody was hurt during the robbery and the thugs abandoned their vehicles at the scene and fled on boda boda motorcycles.

MORE VICTIMS
Enanga said most robberies are happening in the Kampala suburbs of Kyanja, Nakawa and Ntinda. In one week, thugs have robbed three people at a dangerous spot in Kyanja.
On Friday, thugs stole a Toyota Premio car, laptop and Shs 2m belonging to Agatha Atuhairwe, a journalist on The Independent magazine. Earlier, Patrick Mutabwire, the permanent secretary in the ministry of local government, had his valuables taken when thugs blocked his Toyota Harrier UAU 418G.
Jimmy Nganwa, an accountant with Jimtek company, lost $1,200, two TV screens, two laptops and a DVD player, stolen from his home. Enanga said most guns enter Uganda from illegal border entry points of nearby countries like South Sudan, DR Congo, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.
“Government officials only concentrate on securing legal entries at the border and ignore the border points which are in the bushes,” he said. “We have arrested many thugs from South Sudan and Congo who have confessed to killing drivers and robbing their vehicles.”
ANOTHER OFFICER KILLED
Less than a week after three policemen were waylaid in Kampala and their guns taken, a commanding officer at Lukinzi police post in Luweero district was killed on Sunday night.
Sgt Hussein Seweka had just returned from duty when he was gunned down in front of his home. By press time, no arrests had been made. Meanwhile, Herbert Muhangi, the commandant of the police flying squad, said his team recovered seven guns, a pistol and more than 700 rounds of ammunition over the weekend.
They were got from Koboko, where three suspects, including a UPDF officer, were arrested. He added that other guns originated from Rakai and Rukungiri.
“We highly believe they [recovered guns] are the ones captured from our police officers,” he said. “Because the majority have police and UPDF numbers.”

SHOOT-TO-KILL
Enanga added that in the wake of direct threats to police officers, the force has resolved that all armed police officers should shoot-to-kill any person who attempts to grab their gun.
“The IGP has allowed all police officers to shoot and kill thugs who intentionally attack them with the aim of grabbing their guns,” he said.

Source: http://www.observer.ug/