By Nicholas Osobi,
March 18, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —— Uganda’s second most prominent policeman, the assistant inspector general of police, Andrew Kaweesi was gunned down in his black SUV car on Friday along with two others by unknown gunmen. Per Inspector general, Kale Kayihura, Andrew Kaweesi was shot when he was leaving his home, going to work on Friday morning.
“He was shot dead this morning as he was leaving his home coming to work,” said Kale Kayihura.
An eyewitness described seeing four men on two motorcycles attacking the car Andrew and two others were cruising in at around 9:30 am. The motorbikes, they said came from behind as the car was leaving Andrew’s house, and that the car driver had tried to speed off but the unmasked assassins managed to drive past them and sprayed them with bullets.
The former Uganda’s presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, however is one of the sceptics to suspect foul play by Yoweri Museveni’s government, citing the confidence the unknown gunmen had exhibited while carrying out the heinous crime.
“There is a mafia state killing men of honor and Ugandans should be afraid,” Besigye said.
“I am personally sad”, he continues, “because of what has happened and the way it has happened. The kind of confidence clearly shows that the killers are not casual criminals who just hired guns. The mafia groups have relations with government,” Besigye lamented.
President Museveni also pretended to have condemned the killing of the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Andrew by the unknown gunmen he described as thugs riding on motorcycles. He, since, directed the immediate installation of cameras in all major towns of Uganda and along the highways.
“We have been planning to do this project for some time but we have been postponing it because other priorities like the roads and electricity. Since, however, these thugs think they can use this remaining gap in our otherwise robust security frame-work, I have decided and directed the Minister of Finance to work with Police to immediately close this gap,” said Mr Museveni is a statement sent to media houses by his press secretary Linda Nabusayi.
Andrew rose to prominence after spearheading the police response to widespread opposition party protests during controversial 2011 presidential election. He was promoted to a director of operations position, and then head of human resources before taking on the role of main police spokesman in August 2016 till his death.
Andrew’s killing correlates with the assassinations of other high profile legal and military personnel in Uganda, which all were believed to be state minded. In March 2015 Joan Kagezi, a senior public prosecutor, was shot in the street and the attackers escaped with an accomplice on a motorcycle.
In November, last year, also another Ugandan army officer, major Sulaiman Kiggundu was shot in mysterious circumstance and his assailants remained at large.
With such criminal homogeneity, it is hard to tell if Juba regime is copying from Kampala regime or vice versa. But whatever the case, until president Salva Kiir of South Sudan and president Museveni of Uganda are out of power, their citizens will remain victims of unknown gunmen.
Nicholas Osobi is a Revolutionary Columnist, he can be reached at nicholas.osobi@columnist.com.
