Former DPC Kirumira punches holes in police evidence against him

Former Buyende and Old Kampala District Police Commander Assistant Superintendent of Police Muhammad Kirumira has asked the police court to dismiss the charges against him because there is no evidence linking him to them.

Kirumira was recently slapped with seven charges including extortion, corruption, neglect of duty, torture, unlawful arrests, scandalous conduct and excessive use of authority but two of these were on Tuesday dropped when the prosecution failed to bring witnesses to testify against him.

http://nilepost.co.ug/2018/03/06/man-who-accused-kirumira-of-eating-his-rolex-hides-from-court/

In his defence in the charge of extortion, Kirumira told the court chaired by Denis Odongpiny that Hassan Kayongo, a witness who testified against him had inconsistencies in his testimony because he never saw him(Kirumira) being given the said money he is accused of having received from Peace Kyalisiima, one of the suspects he had arrested.

“Kayongo told court that he was only told by a friend to Kyalisiima that I had been given the money which evidence I found lacking,”Kirumira said.

He accused the prosecution of creating charges and individuals who are non- existent to pin him on the charges.

Kirumira cited the case in which he is accused of receiving Shs 150,000 unlawfully but the prosecution failed to give details of the exact day, month and place when the said offence was committed.

“The said James Kakaire mentioned in the particulars as having been arrested before allegedly extorting money from his boss has never testified in this matter yet Steven Atuhaire who testified was never indicated in the charge sheet.”

He said that many people mentioned as the victims of his alleged offences had never testified against him, a thing he said was ridiculous and unusual.

http://nilepost.co.ug/2018/03/06/police-court-dissolved-new-one-to-try-kirumira-in-protest-case/

The maverick police officer said that one Robert Kaleefu who testified against him was non- existent because those were only nicknames which cannot be allowed to be used on official court documents.

“It is not proper for the prosecution to use nicknames on official documents like the charge sheet instead of the proper names as used on national IDs.”

However, defence, the police prosecutor SSP Catherine Kusemereire argued that its acceptable for nicknames to be used worldwide.

“People have nicknames and pet names and you cannot dismiss the fact that they exist in the real world. There is no need to act as if they don’t exist,”Kusemereire told court.

The police prosecutor said that the people that Kirumira said had not testified were among those that had been attacked and intimidated by his sympathisers stopping them from appearing to pin him in the offence.

Kirumira was however quick to fault the police prosecutor of telling lies because the force has a witness protection program that would handle such incidents.

“The police has a fully functional witness protection unit that handles witnesses whose life is in danger before, during and after the trial.”

“There is no evidence that the lives of witnesses were at risk. Not even a reference number of cases reported to police of threats have been shown to court by the prosecution."

Kirumira asked that the case be dismissed because the evidence and witnesses were non- existence to the point that even the prosecutor does not have their numbers or full particulars.

The court chairman Denis Odongpiny adjourned the case to a later day to give his ruling in the matter.