Leader of Opposition in Parliament blasts security agencies over kidnaps; Police responds

The leader of Opposition in Parliament Winnie Kiiza has blasted security agencies over the increased number of kidnaps all over the country.

In the past one month, over seven people have been kidnapped but many of these have been recovered.

Early this week, country woke up to the sad news of the death of Suzan Magara, 28, who had been missing for 20 days and her body had been dumped near the Entebbe Express highway.

Addressing journalists at parliament on Friday, Kiiza said it disheartening to see many people being kidnapped as others are killed but security agencies are engaged in cat fights.

“This dreadful trend which was localised to Kampala suburbs like Najjeera, Kiwatule, Naalya and Naguru has like cancer, spread and is now commonplace, with no clear lines of approach by the Police,”Kiiza told journalists.

“We keep finding bodies. It was once a month then once every two or three weeks then every week. In almost all these, telephones are used but never traced.”

On Tuesday, locals in Kitiko village located between Kigo and Kajjansi along the Kampala- Entebbe Express highway discovered Magara’s body and later it was revealed her kidnappers had asked for a shs3 billion ransom that was given to them but they killed her.

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The Leader of Opposition questioned the concluded exercise of SIMcard registration that she said would have come in handy to help security agencies track the numbers used by Magara’s kidnappers.

“Family and friends are grieving in uncontrolled pain but probably to our security agencies, it is another statistic. The society is traumatised, desperate and living in continuous fright.”

The infuriated Kiiza said it was puzzling that the public can no longer distinguish a genuine security operation from a kidnap claiming that the methods are similar.

She noted that in both, armed people in civilian attire pounce on members of the public before they go missing for a number of days before they are later discovered later dumped in the bush after being killed or end up in prison under fabricated charges.

“What they will do as always is to arrest about 50 hapless wanainchi(locals) from their database of criminals and parade them to great fanfare, then President Museveni will visit the family and donate 10 million shillings. He will ramble about how it was worse off in Obote days, pledge to install street CCTV cameras and then off to the next borehole launch or to his bottled irrigation farm,”Kiiza said.

The Kasese District Woman MP says she is disappointed in the way the situation of kidnaps and murders is being managed by security agencies and government at large.

“I place all weight on the state to seek justice. You owe a duty to Ugandans to guarantee them safety without harassment.”

Police responds

In response, police spokesperson Emilian Kayima admitted that the Leader of Opposition in Parliament is raising pertinent and critical issues worth analysing but noted that she falls short of remedies for the problems above.

“She falls short of suggesting alternatives and better policies. We fall and win together as a country. The earlier we fight crime together, the better,”Kayima noted.

“Demanding answers from those mandated to secure the country is good and responsible but finger point is not.”

Kayima adds that lamenting is not helpful but solutions must be suggested and working together to fight the problem.