Murder charges against Masaka priest are not political, says Police

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Police have dismissed as untrue, reports that the murder charges preferred against vocal and prominent priest for Bisanje Catholic Parish in Masaka, Rev Fr Richard Mugisha  are politically motivated.

Rev.Fr. Mugisha was slapped with murder charges after the death of a suspected thief who was arrested trying to rob his motor vehicle, a Toyota Harrier.

Addressing journalists on Monday, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said on the fateful night, Ronald Kyeyune, 30, was arrested as he tried to drive away the priest’s vehicle and that he was consequently beaten by a mob before the man of God called police to intervene.

“The suspect was arrested at 11pm as he tried to drive off with the motor vehicle by an irate group of youths and community members. It is during the violent beating that the Rev.Father called the police at Masaka to rescue the suspect.When response team reached at around 1am, they picked him and was transferred to Masaka CPS,”Enanga said.

“At around 6:30am, the cells guard realised that the suspect was not feeling well and alerted the standby team to have him transferred to the Hospital for treatment.  During that process the victim passed away.”

A number of commentators over the weekend said the man of God was being witch-hunted for being vocal against the ruling government in the just concluded January 14 presidential elections.

Towards the recently concluded general election, Mugisha openly criticized the ruling NRM government and asked the public to vote for  the National Unity Platform (NUP).

Following the news of the man of God being slapped with murder charges, many claimed these stemmed from his earlier comments and public support of the opposition

However, the police spokesperson, dismissed the claims of witch-hunt against Rev Fr Richard Mugisha , noting that investigations are motivated by the events on the fateful day.

“We got statements from our response teams and they indicated to us the environment under which they rescued the victim. We summoned the reverend father since the incident originated from his home. There has been misinformation circulated that the investigation of the Rev.Father is on effort to witch hunt or victimised him for his particular views about government. This is not true, because the investigations is purely about a crime of murder, and how to bring the perpetrators to book, and not about any particular ideology whether by government, NRM or the opposition,”Enanga said.

According to the police spokespersons, investigations into the death of the suspect will continue to ensure justice.

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