Superintendent of Police (SP) Vincent Irama, the deputy commander of Kampala Metropolitan Police North Region, was picked up after ballistic analysis showed shells of bullets recovered at the scene of a paralegal’s killing were discharged from a finger-printed police gun.
An unknown gunman shot Ronnie Mukisa, 45, dead at his home in Ndejje Division of Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality of Wakiso District on May 30
“The joint security task team of Criminal Investigations Directorate, Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence and [Police] Crime Intelligence that have actively been investigating the violent murder of a city [paralegal] … made a breakthrough and arrested four key suspects, who were involved in the planning and killing of [paralegal],” Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga noted in an update yesterday.
Others being held to help with the inquiries include SP Irama’s brother Robert Irama Kareodu, a businessman, the latter’s wife and a UPDF soldier who deserted from a deployment under ongoing Operation Shuajaah in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
SSP Godwin Tumugumye of Police CID headquarters in Kibuli on Saturday led a team of senior detectives, among them D/ASP Rashid Nyanzi and D/ASP Hebert Ruimbwa, to conduct a search at SP Irama’s home and co-accused.
The search was witnessed by SP Irama, one Peninnah Irama, and Geofrey Muramagi.
The team recovered a sub-machine gun (SMG), registration UG Pol 56 5902065 31783, the gun findings of a ballistic analysis showed discharged the bullets whose cartridges scene of crime officers retrieved from the scene of Mukisa’s shooting roughly a fortnight ago.
The rifle was loaded with 30 bullets when detectives picked it up on the weekend, and investigators are working round-the-clock to establish the circumstances under which the gun assigned to the senior police officer ended up committing a crime and taking their life.
The core mandate of police and its personnel under the Constitution is protecting the lives and property of citizens, which is the basis for providing those weapons and other law enforcement capabilities at taxpayers’ cost.
Detectives found high-end rides, some estimated to cost Shs600m, at the residence of SP Irama — an asset whose value one investigator said did not match the income of their detained officer.
There are different accounts, but both related to money deals gone-bad, being investigated as likely reasons for Mukisa’s killing.
One clue that investigators are following is that he supplied a Toyota Land Cruiser to SP Irama’s brother Kareodu at Shs700m, but the businessman later discovered the actual price was Shs500m.
“He felt that the deceased had cheated him of Shs200m, and got annoyed,” a source close to the investigations said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Kareodu reportedly approached his brother SP Irama to punish Mukisa for failing to refund his money, one detective said, quoting an account offered by the detained UPDF deserter accused of pulling the trigger on the deceased.
“The soldier told us that Kareodu introduced him to SP Irama, who provided him with the gun three days before the shooting,” the source said.
Phone calls
Following the incident, security agencies secured data on the telephone calls made at the crime scene before and after the incident.
It was established that the alleged shooter communicated with the wife of the businessman three minutes after Mukisa’s killing, but what they discussed has not been revealed.
“The call data also shows that the person whom the killer called on the phone after the fateful moment, was also with the businessman. The call data put the killer at the crime scene,” said another detective familiar with preliminary findings of the investigations.
Businessman Kareodu, according to police, has denied allegations by the soldier that he contracted him to shoot Mukisa with a gun provided by SP Irama, a former district police commander (DPC) in Entebbe.
A second account is that Mukisa was contracted to clean $400,000 (Shs1.5b) proceed from drug trafficking and he and others were to share $100,000 (Shs370m) in commission.
He reportedly short-changed the unnamed trafficker and other agents, leading to his killing by offended parties.
Police are not yet certain which of the two accounts is more credible.
A senior security source told this publication that the Special Forces Command (SFC) had previously adversely named SP Irama when Entebbe DPC, but police leadership for unexplained reasons elected to simply transfer him.
Another police officer said there is a tendency for bosses in the Force to move rogue officers from headquarters to hard-to-reach places as punishment or promote to clothe them against penalty, instead of prosecuting them in police or criminal courts, leading to rising impunity.
Robert Irama’s run-ins with the law
Senior police officer SP Vincent Irama’s brother Robert Irama Kareodu, a businessman, has had multiple run-ins with the law. In 2015, he and two others were convicted in Canada and sentenced to two years in jail after pleading guilty to seven counts including money laundering and fraud in which banks lost more than Shs3b between 2011 and 2012. Some of the money from Uganda, Spain, China, and Switzerland had been wired to Canada.
The businessman also has a drug trafficking case number ENT-00-CR-CO-0374-2022, pending before Entebbe Chief Magistrate’s Court. Aviation Police at Entebbe International Airport arrested Irama and two alleged accomplices in 2022 on allegations of trafficking drugs into the country.
“The businessman is supposed to reappear in court next (this) week,” said a police officer familiar with the case. Late Mukisa was reportedly helping Mr Irama with the case, although his actual brief was not disclosed.
