Prominent Ugandan police officer shot dead

A prominent senior police officer, Muhammad Kirumira has been shot , as he returned to his home on the outskirts of the capital Kampala on Saturday evening.

Local media are reporting that the vocal and controversial police officer, was shot together with his wife, a few miles from their home in Bulenga.

Kirumira was in April this year convicted of unlawful or unnecessary excessive use of authority by the police court.

The same court acquitted the officer of the charges of corruption and neglect of duty citing lack of sufficient evidence. He denied the charges and claimed he was the victim of what he called a Mafia in Uganda’s police force.

On Facebook, he accused senior officers in the force of corruption, working with criminal gangs and hiring out guns to wrong elements. He repeatedly said that he was the target of an assassination plot.

He had a huge following on Facebook.

Kirumira has been on suspension since early this year when he was recalled by his superior from his assignment as commander in a district in eastern Uganda.

He was shot dead in his car as he drove home with his wife around 19 GMT.

Gun violence in Uganda

In March 2017, Felix Kaweesi, the deputy head of Uganda’s police was shot dead as he drove from his home. His killers have not been found. His killing prompted changes in the force’s hierarchy after Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni vowed to ‘rid the police of weevils’.

In June, a law maker, Ibrahim Abiriga was shot dead with his body guard near his home on the outskirts of Kampala. No one has been charged for his murder.

Four hours before he was gunned down, Kirumira had written ‘The almighty is above all of us. I wish every body well’ on his Facebook page accompanied by a photo of him alongside two men at an unexplained function.

Ugandans reacted with shock to the news of death. Using social media sites, many questioned why gun crime was on the rise in the east African country.

Three weeks ago, Uganda was rocked by protests over the detention and alleged torture of legislators Robert Kyagulanyi and Francis Zaake. Uganda’s security forces responded by shooting dead six protesters and injuring dozens.

The brutal murder of yet another senior government official,comes as president Museveni is scheduled to address the nation on Sunday.

President KagutaMuseveni will address a national press conference tomorrow, Sunday, at 8pm. Tune in. #M7Presser pic.twitter.com/yLNAz7T4a2

— Don Wanyama (nyamadon) September 8, 2018