When President Yoweri Museveni ordered for the arrest of former inspector general of police Gen Kale Kayihura on June 13, he'd just been handed a report compiled by the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) about the death of Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
The report implicated Kayihura, the then Flying Squad commander Herbert Muhangi, Col Atwooki Ndahura formerly director Crime Intelligence and many other police officers who had formerly been Kayihura's blue-eyed boys.
Kayihura and the other officers were accused of planning, executing and covering up the murder of police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi. Kaweesi was sprayed in a hail of bullets on the March 17, 2017 in Kulambiro, Kisaasi a Kampala suburb.
ISO had put together a comprehensive 100-page report including statements of witnesses, expert reports on various exhibits and evidence collected by the intelligence officers under ISO director Col Kaka Bagyenda.
The full report was then handed to the president in June 2018 and after reading it, he ordered for the arrest of Kayihura and every other person who was named in the report as having been behind the murder of Kaweesi.
ISO's report indicated that Kaweesi was murdered on orders from another unnamed country. A reliable source told URN that President Museveni begun receiving information implicating Kayihura as early as August 2017 but asked ISO to compile a comprehensive report.
"The president was obviously unhappy on how the Kaweesi murder was investigated. Even after suspects were charged in court, he kept asking Kayihura to investigate the case and give results. But early this year, his words changed. He kept accusing police of working for foreign interests," the source said.
On June 8, 2018, Bagyenda confirmed to the media that ISO was investigating the murder of Kaweesi and investigations were almost complete.
Some of the evidence presented against Kayihura and his men included audio recordings of conversations between Kayihura and Muhangi.
In the recording, the voice alleged to be Kayihura asks whether the assignment is done and Muhangi confirms that it is finished. The call was allegedly made at 9:20am on March 17, 2017, the day Kaweesi was killed.
Attached to the audio was an audio analysis expert report allegedly from Makerere University. The report also had call printouts which placed Muhangi and Richard Ndaboine the then head of police Cyber Crime Unit in Kulambiro at the time of Kaweesi's murder.
The report also alleged that planning meetings were held at Kati Kati restaurant chaired by Kayihura in which 10 police officers and two civilians were in attendance a few days before Kaweesi was assassinated.
The report also had a statement from a boda-boda cyclist who had allegedly transported the shooters to Kulambiro on orders of Kayihura. The cyclist only identified as Musa was arrested in August 2017 by ISO and is claimed to have confessed to being part of the murder plot.
In the confession statement attached in the report, Musa says he was told that a senior police officer was the one who wanted Kaweesi dead and would thus protect all of them from being arrested.
Musa also alleged that he was in contact with Geoffrey Wambewo the late Kaweesi's driver who also died and that his role was to signal the shooters that Kaweesi was in the vehicle.
Another statement in the report was that of Christine Mbabazi Muhooza, a close friend of the late Kaweesi. In a statement, she indicated that she had been contacted by Kayihura and asked to spy on Kaweesi days before his death and to share the information with him.
Muhooza also said that she was privy to meetings which were being held in Lugogo planning for Kaweesi even though she did not know the plan was to murder him.
Another witness in the report was Paddy Sserunjoji alias Sobi a former armed robbery and murder convict who is indicated in the report as having got witnesses from Kulambiro who could identify the shooters.
Sobi also says some friends told him that they had been contacted by police officers for an assassination which they feared executing.
Investigations into the report
Upon receipt of the report, Museveni held a meeting with police boss Martin Okoth Ochola, director Criminal Investigations Grace Akullo, head of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence Abel Kanduho and Bagyenda.
He ordered for an investigation into allegations made in the ISO report. A team of seven people was set up comprising of five police officers and two CMI operatives. The officers included Akullo, deputy director CID Joseph Obwona, head of CID Homicide department Mande Agaba, head of CID Kampala Metropolitan Police (KMP) Johnson Olal and Officer in Charge CID Kira Road Police Sophie Neboshe.
Before the investigation started, the president ordered for the arrest of Kayihura on grounds that he had capacity to interfere with the investigations.
The role of the investigative committee was to verify the authenticity of the report. This included interviewing the witnesses whose statements were in the report, talking to the investigators and the intelligence personnel who worked on the report and authenticating the documentary evidence provided.
"The committee was doing due diligence to the report. Whatever they found would be the basis of whether the file moves to court for prosecution or is trashed," our source who was privy to the workings of the committee said.
He adds, "Midway the investigations, ISO contested the presence of Olal and Neboshe being part of the team and in fact were asked to keep away from part of the investigations."
Findings
Last week, the committee handed over a fully compiled 160 paged report to the President on their findings while investigating the ISO Kaweesi murder report.
During the questioning of witnesses, the committee had found that most of them had been coached and did not have any idea about the Kaweesi murder.
The first to be questioned had been the boda-boda cyclist who claimed to have transported the shooters. It was discovered that Musa had no idea where Kaweesi's assassination occurred from.
He was put in a car and asked to direct the investigators where he took the shooter. He, however, took them to a place far away and in the opposite direction to where Kaweesi was murdered from.
The committee also questioned Muhooza who retracted her statement and revealed that she had been forced by Bagyenda to pin Kayihura or else she would be arrested.
The committee also questioned the authenticity of the audio analysis report from Makerere University which proved that the voices were those of Kayihura and Muhangi. It also showed that the audio was doctored.
The committee found out that Makerere did not have any department with capability to analyse voices. The committee sent the audio to South Africa and it was declared doctored by audio experts.
The intelligence officer who is the originator of the audio recording disappeared when he heard the committee wanted to question him on the source of the audio and thus his statement is not reflected in the report.
The report, in conclusion, found that ISO's report was a sham and all the evidence had been fabricated to pin the alleged suspects.
It is after the handing over of the report that it was decided the Kayihura be tried of offences that had already been investigated by the army back when he was still IGP.
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