A total of eight police officers including three Assistant Superintendents of Police – ASPs Muhammad Byansi – Officer in Charge of Natete Police Station, Andrew Nizeyimana – Natete OC CID and Allan Okello- Natete Patrol Commander have been convicted of negligence of duty over the Nagirinya kidnap and subsequent murder.
Other officers convicted by the police disciplinary court include Detective Assistant Inspector of Police Sande Baguma, Corporal Samuel Owona, Detective Corporal Reuben Kibikwamu, Police Constable Joshua Basaliza and Police Constable Deo Kitutu.
On the night of August 28, unidentified men kidnapped driver Ronald Kitayimbwa and Nagirinya, a former employee of Community Integrated Development Initiative, an NGO from her at her gate in Busega Lungujja before killing them and their bodies were later found dumped in Mukono.
Following the incident, President Museveni ordered for the arrest and prosecution of the officers who were manning the CCTV camera command centre on the fateful day.
Subsequently, the eight officers were arraigned before the police disciplinary court and charged with negligence and discreditable conduct contrary to Section 44(1) of the Police Act.
On Monday, police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said all the eight had been convicted of the charges by the police court.
“The Police disciplinary court has found them of guilty after neglecting their duties. They failed to immediately respond to a report of a double kidnap. They also violated the requirement of duty of remaining alert while on duty,”Enanga said.
During the hearing of the case Harriet Nakyejwe,40 an elder sister to Nagirinya told the police disciplinary court that when they arrived at Nateete Police Station, they were tossed around before stopping them from accessing the facility.
“At Nateete, they refused us from entering the police station. The officers ordered us to park our vehicles outside the station despite being night time.”
The witness broke down while narrating the manner in which Nagirinya’s relatives were tossed around various police stations from around midnight to 5 am the following day.
Nakyejwe said when they finally accepted to leave vehicles outside Nateete Police station; the police officers found at the counter were not helpful at all to them.
“We followed the instructions and parked outside the police station. When we asked the police officers to help us check the CCTV cameras one of them who was seated leaning against the chair with his legs crossed and put on top of another chair told us the cameras were not working,”Nakyejwe told the police disciplinary court.
“The officer also told us the case was not supposed to be handled by Nateete Police station and told us to go to Katwe.”
Sentence
According to the Police spokesperson, six out of the eight officers were sentenced to reprimands by the police disciplinary court and that in case of any other offence committed by them, they would face a bigger punishment.
Reprimand is the same as a caution.
The officers who were cautioned included ASPs Muhammad Byansi – Officer in Charge of Nateete Police Station, Andrew Nizeyimana – Natete OC CID , Allan Okello-Detective Assistant Inspector of Police Sande Baguma, Police Constable Joshua Basaliza and Police Constable Deo Kitutu.
However, the same court ordered for a reduction in rank for corporals Samuel Owona and Reuben Kibikwamu after being found guilty of negligence of duty and discreditable conduct.
“They have a period of 14 days to appeal against the sentences before the appellant court of the police force,”Enanga said.
Nagirinya murder: Police officers told us CCTV cameras were not working-Witness
