David Mafabi, a veteran journalist (PHOTO/Courtesy)
MBALE —With the exception of charges against Masereka Kamada and Thembo Kitsumbire, last week the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew all the charges including murder, terrorism, treason, malicious damage to property, attempted murder, and aggravated robbery, among others which had been slapped on Rwenzururu King Mumbere and many of his subjects.
As usual, the DPP only informed court presided over by Justice Alice Kyomuhangi that the state had lost interest in the case and was withdrawing the 2016 charges against the accused persons.
Well, I wonder if this is what they call justice. If the government owns its people and it can decide their fate as it pleases, we are doomed. The Police officers that were killed were not manufactured by government; they were human beings with relatives to whom the government owes accountability.
Am sure their families would have desired to see justice being served. I don’t think it is fair that the DPP should have so much power to discontinue such a sensitive case without engaging the families of the deceased in total disregard to their feelings.
Of course we all know that the DPP did not have any evidence but then what was the purpose of subjecting Mumbere and his people to unnecessary inconvenience aware the case was a non starter.
The suspects had been implicated in the murder of Police Constable Godfrey Kasimba on March 24th, 2016 and later Saverio Ochema and Simon Peter Apille. Mumbere and his subjects aare said to have attempted to murder Polycarp Ojoko, Benon Byaki, Francisco Nsimaki, and Assistant Inspector of Police Denis Ahebwa. They were also victimized for attacking several police establishments and property at Bukara and Nyabutsi villages in July and November 2016.
It is said that the withdrawal of charges follows a bargain for amnesty which was granted by the Amnesty Commission after the suspects confessed to have played a part that led to the charges.
Whether it is true they had a hand or only admitted for the sake of being exonerated is a debate for another day. However, if it is true that the suspects admitted to having participated in the crimes and also denounced rebellion, then Mumbere should cease being a King.
In 2018, Mumbere and his co-accused were committed to the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kololo by the Jinja High Court to face the charges.
After a several attempts, Mumbere and some of his co accused were granted bail. Mumbere was slapped with a travel ban with his movements restricted within the borders of Kampala, Wakiso, and Mukono Districts.
It is said that the state had overwhelming evidence with over 70 witnesses and lots of exhibits.
Today at the heart of who is responsible for the attack on a school in Kasese, the first lady who visited Kasese said there were land wrangles over the land on which the school sits.
The impression created here is that the attack had more to do with the land dispute and not the so called ADF rebels. Earlier, the army and the police had confirmed that 37 students of Lhubiriha secondary school, in Mpondwe, Kasese district had been killed by suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels.
Reading contradicting reports from Kasese, I was shocked to hear a confession from Major Gen Olum Dick that the rebels had camped in the area for two nights preparing the attack.
And yet government on several occasions has told Ugandans that there is peace across the country and that all rebels were defeated-I don’t know what to believe but these contradictions remind me something my late grand Mothers always said “If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside does not hurt you.
On the other hand, the President seems to suggest that the rebels must have been working with some criminals within and could have been used by some people to settle personal scores. That means sooner than later, we are going to have another set of people suspected to have been behind the land wrangle behind bars.
So as Mumbere and his co accused are granted temporary freedom, they may be accused and incriminated again as having had a hand in the massacre.
Information from the school administration shows that the suspected rebels attacked the school shortly before midnight 16 June, 2023 cutting their victims into pieces and shooting while others were shot using live bullets before setting part of the school on fire.
It is said some of the students were badly injured while some were abducted. Now the Minister for Higher Education Chrysostom Muyingo has come out to insult those who lost their children that the Government will give each five million and also treat the injured. Were these kids for sale?
Yes, this is how our ministers think and must be reminded of the Bugisu traditional proverb that goes that Cassava has the same skin outside but tastes different.
Last year, the UPDF forced its way into the DR Congo in pursuit of the ADF rebels in what appeared to be a successful mission. The President was not shy to praise the commanders for a job well done saying it had wiped out all ADF threats.
The practice of terrorists is that they never attack without warning, and it appears they did, the Friday night attack in Kasese comes in the aftermath of a United States warning of imminent terror threats.
I thought when these warnings come, security agencies all over are supposed to be on standby plus 1, alert 24/7.
Be that as it may, is it a coincidence that Mumbere and his co accused were only exonerated on the 13th June, 2023 and four days later on the 17th June, 2023, there is an attack on a school within Kasese? If there was shooting, why didn’t the army and the police react, why did they not follow the rebels to their hideout?
Is somebody trying to malign Mumbere so that he does not go back to Kasese or somebody want to find an excuse to throw the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu in a limbo like they did with the Obugabe in Ankole.
Looking back at past incidence of indiscriminate mass killings, we do not see just for these innocent children and their families.
The 8 June 1998 Kichwamba massacre, Kanungu massacre, 1989 Mukura massacre, Kasese massacre, Atiak massacre among others are some of the massacre that have been investigated but their reports shelved somewhere far from the public. Soon we shall hear that there is a commission of inquiry into the kasese massacre. Usually, the period taken by the members of the commission is long enough for Ugandans to forget.
If indeed it was a mere land dispute, why has President Museveni directed the chief of defence forces Gen Wilson Mbadi and his junior in charge of land forces commander, Lt Gen Kayanja Muhanga take over the situation on Kasese.
We are told the top army brass will be accompanied by a team from the ministry of Education to conduct the ground assessment. Why is supposed trying to confuse the situation with land wrangles. What are the chances that the owners of the school are going to be arrested so that they implicate some innocent souls.
Be that as it may, there is something that the government is not telling Ugandans. It is hard to convince many of us that rebels can enter into the Uganda, invade a school, slaughter children, shoot some and abduct others and after that walk away as if it is business as usual.
We are told there is an army barracks just a few kilometers away from that school. Why did they not pursue them into the jungles at night yet we claim to have an edge of them?
Where was the police and the army to intercept them before they could flee back into Congo.
How about the claim that operation Shuja had wiped out the rebels as well as their bases in Congo. Is somebody exaggerating an otherwise small issue in order to demand for a supplementary budget or is somebody interested in sending our soldiers back to Congo.
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