One person was gunned down and four others arrested on Wednesday in the police crackdown on organized criminal gangs targeting people with huge sums of money in Kampala.
A team of officers from the Crime Intelligence and Flying Squad Unit rounded up the suspects in the areas of Kisenyi-Mengo near the bus terminal.
The operation stemmed from the public outcry about criminal gangs targeting local business people and foreigners with money.
The latest incident occurred along Prince Charles Avenue in Kololo on February 25, 2022, where a group of young men riding on motorcycles were captured on the CCTV cameras in Kololo assaulting and robbing Dawit Kasa, a diplomat at the Ethiopian Embassy.
The footage that was captured by the security Cameras at the Turkish Embassy that has since gone viral, shows eight men riding on four motorcycles knocking and surrounding their victim who was returning from a nearby bank.
The group descended on the diplomat with kicks and blows and they grabbed his belongings and sped off on their motorcycles.
Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police spokesperson, says that the thugs made off the victim’s mobile phones worth Shillings 2.8M, a Laptop and an unspecified amount of money.
He says that they since arrested four suspected believed to have participated in similar incidents in Kampala.
They are Abdullamani Bakata alias Pancho , Nsubuga Emmanuel, Wanandya Agustine and Muwanda Ivan .
Owoyesigyire explains that during the operation, the officers shot one of the suspects only identified as Alipanda while trying to resist arrest. He explains that the suspect later succumbed to his injuries on the way to Mulago National Referral hospital.
According to the suspects were involved in other city robberies including the robbery of Shillings 16 million from Abdallah Wanda at Mini price in Kampala, Shillings 7 million from an unidentified businessman at Buganda Road last week and the attack and robbery of Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu.
“The group is big and the hunt is still on with the aim of arresting all the gang members. Exhibits including 20 mobile phones, ATM cards and IDs of different nationals suspected to have been robbed, were recovered from their base of operation. Owoyesigyire stated.”
