New Vision (Kampala)
OPINION
February 5, 2003
Posted to the web February 5, 2003
John Kakande
Kampala
Some operatives arrest, detain and extort money from people after framing them on fake charges
THE Director General of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Brig. Henry Tumukunde, last September issued a statement in which he affirmed that ISO operatives are not supposed to arrest suspects.
Tumukunde said that the powers of arrest lie with the Police. Even when the complaint is with ISO, they must inform Police to effect arrest.
Brig. Tumukunde advised members of the public to resist any arrest "where one cannot identify himself as an official from the police."
The brigadier's statement was to guide the general public, following complaints about illegal arrests, torture and detention by some people purporting to be ISO operatives.
I have been prompted to refer to Tumukunde's September statement by the recent kidnap and gruesome murder of Fred Musitwa, one of the petitioners in the Mayuge LC5 election petition.
Musitwa was kidnapped from Mayuge as he was leaving a local court. Two of the kidnappers wore military uniform and claimed to be security operatives.
His wife and other members of his family frantically searched for him at Police stations in Jinja and Kampala for days in vain.
Out of desperation, his wife contacted the New Vision and narrated her husband's ordeal. You would think that her story was mere fiction. It appeared strange that such a thing, reminiscent of dictator Idi Amin's days, could happen in today's Uganda.
Two weeks before he was kidnapped and murdered, Musitwa on January 10, 2003 wrote a 10-page petition to the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), complaining that he and his brother, Moses Balikowa, had been subjected to politically motivated persecution, harassment and bogus criminal charges.
He stated that his life was in danger.
Musitwa's murder highlights a serious problem that the authorities must tackle urgently.
Unauthorised security personnel should be stopped from carrying out arrests.
For many arrests, it is a nightmare to establish the security agency responsible. It is a nightmare to locate where a suspect is being detained. Many security operatives from CMI, ISO, Operation Wembley or Kalangala Action Plan (KAP) arrest and detain suspects without any reference to the police. Some operatives arrest, detain and extort money from people after framing them on fake charges.
Musitwa was at first accused of holding subversive meetings.
One of the people who kidnapped him was allegedly from an adhoc security unit and was arrested at the doorstep of the unit's Kampala office.
The Musitwa incident has buttressed President Museveni's proposal to set up a probe in the judiciary.
In his statement to the UHRC, which was copied to several civil and security authorities, Musitwa complained about the way him and his brother were subjected to fictitious criminal proceedings and held in prison.
If indeed what Musitwa stated was true, it was a gross miscarriage of justice.
Are the lower courts now meting out injustice? Is justice on sale? A probe in the judiciary is certainly long overdue. Ends
