Security guard who shot dead mechanic in Kyengera arrested in Soroti

Police in Soroti have arrested a security guard who killed a mechanic in Kyengera, Wakiso district early this week.

On January 7, Abubakar Kinene a mechanic and resident of Kyengera was involved in a quarrel with a security guard at a  soda depot in the area after the former was stopped from using a path that went past the  depot.

In the ensuing exchange of words, Isaac Okwir, a security guard attached to Redteck Security Company shot dead Kinene before fleeing the scene with the gun that he later abandoned at the company headquarters in Ntinda.

Meanwhile, in the ensuing scuffle, locals stormed the depot and in a bid to try and locate the killer destroyed property nearby prompting the police and the army to intervene and calm the situation.

On Wednesday, Police in Soroti, in Eastern Uganda arrested as he tried to flee to Pallisa.

“Our crime intelligence officers arrested him as he tried to flee to his village in Pallisa district and transported back to Kampala,” Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire said.

The Police mouthpiece said that investigations into the matter have been concluded and that the suspect will be arraigned in court to answer the murder charges against him.

Cases of private security guards shooting dead people and being involved in criminality are on the rise and police attributes in on ill training.

In September last year, police in Mukono arrested a security guard for shooting dead a colleague and on arrest, the suspect confessed that he had been subdued by evil spirits.

Early last year, a security guard at Arua Park in Kampala was arrested for shooting one person dead during a protest by traders.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Brig.Muzeeyi Sabiiti recently told The Nile Post that despite efforts by the police force to reach out private security companies to have their personnel trained by experienced police trainers, a number of them have not heeded to the call.

He said many of the private guards are trained for a few days before being deployed with guns, a thing he said is dangerous.

In 2017, police announced arrangements had been finalised to have all security guards in private companies registered under a centralised system.

It was said then that the police ICT department had developed a biometric system to create a pool of data of new and existing recruits to stop criminal elements moving from one company to another.

Under the arrangement, guards employed by institutions and companies as individuals were supposed to undergo a training provided by the association of private security guards.

Private security organisations are an auxiliary arm of the Uganda Police Force as provided for under the Police Act and are mandated to uphold the standards of the force.