Gunmen kill senior Ugandan police official, president orders cameras

Gunmen on motorbikes killed Uganda’s third highest ranking police officer on Friday, drawing condemnation from President Yoweri Museveni who ordered the installation of surveillance cameras in major towns and on highways.

The unidentified shooters sprayed bullets at Assistant Inspector General Andrew Felix Kaweesi’s car after he left his home in a northern neighborhood of the capital.

The gunmen’s motive was not immediately clear. Kaweesi was a former head of police operations in greater Kampala and gained a prominent public profile for overseeing the frequent arrests of Uganda’s main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye.

Local television showed a crowd gathered at the scene and a parked Toyota Landcruiser with both doors on the driver’s side open. Blood was spattered on the ground.

Crime is rampant in Uganda and most homicides go unsolved.

Condemning the killing, Museveni’s office said: “As a consequence of these repeated murders in the city … the president has directed the immediate installation of cameras in all major towns of Uganda and along the highways.”

Last month the Daily Monitor newspaper reported that only 15 out of 1068 murders recorded in 2015 were prosecuted. A year earlier, only 19 murder cases were prosecuted out of 943 cases.

Government critics have long accused police of cracking down on opponents of Museveni instead of fighting crime. The murder of a well guarded security official will further heighten fears over public safety.

In power since 1986, 72-year-old Museveni won another five-year term last year.

Reuters