Kifesi group promise security in city during Christmas

A rehabilitated Kifesi group has vowed to monitor their notorious colleagues planning to perform any atrocities against Greater Kampala residents during the festive season.

The gang under their umbrella body ‘team yo weeli” said they will thwart robberies and any form of crime against the people of Kampala by keeping watch on their colleagues still in the business, and also trying to recruit them into the rehabilitated group.

Paddy Sserunjoji, commonly known as Sobi, a once public nuisance from the ghetto, Kisenyi 1 parish, Kampala, assured the festive holiday makers that the robberies will be limited since they are trying to bring together the whole crew for a common cause, in their way to fight injustice in the country.

Gidudu Fred, their senior opinion leader in central village, said that the Christmas celebrants should not fear since they have made a reformed team and they will keep monitoring those who have not added themselves to the team yet.

He said that although they have not found some other income sources, they want to keep humanity, turning to business people, giving an example of Sobi, who now has two shops at ham shopping grounds.

Sobi said they need to be empowered to do peace keeping jobs since they know almost everything and everyone around town. He said that the police underestimate the power of the people they engage asserting that they are the biggest missing link that the security organs need.

The gang group said robbery and murder was their job that would earn them a living. They worked for different organizations and individuals who wanted missions for their personal reasons or other motives.

Sobi said the most interesting thing is when one is caught and taken to prison, their cases or evidences disappear mysteriously and they end up releasing them to the same world, same jobs.

He said that the prison, instead of being a university of misunderstanding, it becomes university of understanding after different criminals come in the same cell.

The people in question are trained to make quick robbery; (akabadia), using guns, and they can kill in a minute, or paralyze u to get what they want. They have made different operations which include the Uganda breweries robbery in 1996.

Twaha Gogolimbo, the coordinator of the team said sometime back they wanted to reform by joining hands with the police but unfortunately fell in the wrong hands since some of them proved to be robbers themselves sending them again to the missions they were running from.

Some other missions that they were given to do included burning transformers in the city, attacking those who amended the constitution, which they declined shortly before their ‘reformation’.

Their central places of attack were always kampala, Entebe, Mukono and  Jinja, most of the crimes being led by Sobi.

Last year, police together with Makindye Division mayor, Ali Mulyanyama rehabilitated over 400 Kifesi gang members. The IGP consequently agreed to support them into small scale jobs as a means of resettling them.

By Promise Twinamukye