Convicted Kagezi Killer Recounts Criminal Life in Testimony Agaisnt 'Childhood Friends' 

By Dan Ayebare | Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Convicted Kagezi Killer Recounts Criminal Life in Testimony Agaisnt 'Childhood Friends' 
Kisekka, who was handed a 35-year jail term, testifies in court on Tuesday

In gripping testimony at the International Crimes Division of the High Court, 43-year-old Daniel Kisseka delivered a chilling account of how he and his childhood friends descended into a life of violent crime, culminating in the assassination of state prosecutor Joan Kagezi.

Now a state witness, Kisseka laid bare years of robberies, desertion from the army, and gun trafficking, implicating his co-accused—John Kibuuka, Nasur Abudalah, and John Masajjage—in the process.

When the prosecution asked him if he recognised the men sitting across from him in court, Kisseka responded without hesitation: “I know all of them.”

He identified Kibuuka as both a childhood friend and in-law, and Masajjage as a close friend of Kibuuka, all of whom he had known since his early years in Kayunga District.

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Asked whether he bore any grudges against them, Kisseka said he did not.

“I don’t have any problem with them,” he told the court.

“The reason I testify is that indeed we committed the offences.”

His testimony traced a long and winding road of crime, beginning in 1999 when he worked in bakeries around Kalerwe with acquaintances named Musajja, Kemba John, and Sunday—the brother of a bakery owner named Mwebe.

In 2002, he joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, graduating in 2003 and later deployed to Gulu. But by 2004, during a period of leave, his trajectory shifted dramatically.

According to Kisseka, it was Kibuuka who first broached the idea of acquiring guns to "make money."

After returning to Gulu in 2005, Kisseka invited Kibuuka there, where—with the help of a fellow soldier named Posiano—they picked up two firearms.

From that moment, Kisseka deserted the army and returned to Kampala—armed and on the run.

The group soon found a host in Nasur Abudalah, who provided them a hideout in Kanyanya.

Joined later by Masajjage, they escalated from motorcycle thefts to full-fledged armed robberies, targeting bakeries, banks, and microfinance institutions in neighbourhoods like Kisaasi, Bwaise, Kyebando, and as far as Buikwe.

One notable incident occurred during a robbery mission in Busunju, along Hoima Road. Due to poor terrain caused by ongoing road construction, the group’s motorcycle skidded and crashed.

“Kibuuka threw the gun into a bush when well-wishers gathered to help after the accident,” Kisseka recounted.

When they returned the next day, a cattle grazier told them he had found the weapon and handed it over to police.

The group's activities eventually drew the attention of Operation Wembley, then led by Lt Gen. Elly Kayanja.

A sweeping crackdown resulted in the 2007 arrests of Abdallah, Kisseka, Kibuuka, and Masajjage.

While the others pleaded guilty to armed robbery, Kisseka claimed innocence. He remained in detention until 2011, when he escaped from Makindye Military Barracks.

During his years on the run, he relocated to South Sudan before returning to Uganda in 2014, where he lived in Kayunga and later Mukono, farming watermelons and tomatoes to survive.

But the past caught up with him. Kisseka told the court that Kibuuka sought him out again, offering a new “deal.”

Though he claimed to have declined, it appears that by then, law enforcement was already closing in.

Kisseka’s testimony now forms part of the evidence in the trial over the 2015 assassination of Joan Kagezi, who was gunned down while driving home in the presence of her children.

Her death shocked the nation and stalled several high-profile terrorism cases she had been handling.

Now back behind bars, testifying against the very men he once called brothers, Kisseka’s detailed account offers rare insight into one of Uganda’s most organised criminal rings—how it formed, how it operated, and how it ultimately imploded.

His revelations may not only influence the outcome of the Kagezi trial but could also expose lingering networks of criminality woven from childhood bonds and sustained by years of impunity.

The Kagezi murder trial is being heard by the International Division of the High Court.

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