On Saturday March 30, it clocked exactly four years since Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Kagezi was killed.
At around 7pm on that Monday evening in 2015, the lead prosecutor in the July 2010 bomb suspects’ trial was gunned down by unknown assailants as she returned home in Kiwatule, a Kampala suburb.
According to accounts from eyewitnesses, Kagezi had stopped to buy some fruits from a stall near the roadside before the assailants who were following her pushed bullets into her head.
The CID Director, AIGP Grace Akullo who was by coincidence following Kagezi’s vehicle was among the first people to arrive at the scene before evacuating her to Mulago where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
As the narrative has always been with the murder of prominent persons, police rushed to put blame on Allied Democratic Forces agents for the murder.
It was reported that the assassins who wore masks and travelling on a motorcycle shot Kagezi dead before vanishing in thin air.
The murder also saw the then police chief, Gen.Kale Kayihura order for a police booth to be established near Kagezi’s home. The booth was stationed there for only six months.
Investigations
Following the murder, police arrested over 50 suspects claiming they had a hand in the assassination but just like many cases, these were later released after the office of the Director of Public Prosecution advised there was no evidence linking them to the murder.
Up to now, four years later, no suspect has ever been arrested and charged in court with the murder of the state prosecutor.
In simple terms, the investigations seem to have hit a dead end.
However, according to reports investigators attached to military intelligence were pursing leadings indicating that the assailants targeted a different person other than Kagezi and that due to mistaken identity, they took her life.
President Museveni recently insisted Kagezi was killed by ADF agents who tried to bribe her and she refused.
"Joan Kagezi refused bribes from ADF not to prosecute them. She was then gunned down," Museveni said during the passing out of over 6000 Local Defence Personnel at Kaweweeta military recruit training school in Nakaseke district on March 15.
When contacted for a comment on the matter, police spokesperson, Fred Enanga promised to get back to us but when called again, he didn’t pick our repeated calls.