By KT Reporter
Victims of his torturous acts on Wednesday evening gathered outside Kajjansi magistrates court to celebrate the dramatic re-arrest of the much dreaded police constable Alex Katungi. He had just been released on bail after his lawyer Mwesigwa Rukutana had coordinated the raising of Ugx5m that was paid as cash bail.
As soon as he was released and prepared to join his relatives to drive home in Buziga or his auntie’s place in Lweza, Katungi suddenly realized his powerlessness when a group of plain-clothed operatives emerged, surrounded and subdued him before dragging him to a waiting drone. He screamed on top of his voice while calling for help but none came.
As all this happened, some of his torture victims mainly poor old women and other onlookers burst into singing songs praising president Museveni while thanking God for his poetic justice.
“That man lived by the sword and maimed many of us at will. He humiliated old men before their wives and grandparents before their grandchildren. It’s good the president has finally intervened and had him arrested because he used to brag while brandishing his riffle and announcing to us how we were the law and the state himself. We were worried that upon being released on bail he would continue from where he stopped; maiming us the poor people in this Kajjansi area. We thank the Almighty he has been re-arrested and taken back to Luzira because that’s where brutes like him belong. I never knew I would live to see this day,” said a jubilant old man who had joined others to witness the Wednesday events at the Kajjansi magistrates court where Katungi had come to hear the magistrate rule on his bail application.
He had been remanded the previous week after being charged with assault and conspiracy to assault residents in Kajjansi. One of the victims of his assault Maria Nabukalu, wife to Peter Ssenabulya, was a pregnant woman who miscarriage after being kicked hard in the stomach by Katungi himself, according to prosecution.
Along with SP Hadali Kenneth, Katungi had been arrested and detained on Monday by state house anti-corruption unit operatives on the express directives of the president.
Mary Natasha, who speaks for the state house anti-corruption unit on Thursday confirmed Katungi’s re-arrest but made it clear that her unit hadn’t been involved in that re-arrest operation.
Speaking on Thursday, Natasha explained that a re-arrested Katungi spent the Wednesday night back in Luzira where a production warrant was served to have him produced in Makindye magistrates court.
On Thursday he was slapped with fresh charges relating to land grabbing. The victim who is also the complainant is John Baptist Mutebi whose grabbed land is located at a place called Kibibi in Makindye Ssabagabo.
He claims that PC Katungi, who purported to be on a wetlands protection enforcement operation, came around one time and threatened to arrest him on grounds that he was building in a wetland which is illegal.
To buy his freedom and to avoid being tortured and locked up at Kajjansi police station, Mutebi was given the option of surrendering 50% of his land to Katungi so that he could be pardoned. Katungi took his part and even put there a commercial building with mizigos/rentals from which he would get monthly rent.
Months later UNRA came and demolished the rentals for being in a road reserve. Katungi made a loss and turned on Mutebi demanding that he compensates him with 60m for misleading him to build in a road reserve.
Mutebi was now broke and couldn’t raise the money which prompted Katungi to take away his adjacent land to recover the 60m which he claimed to have lost on the demolished mizigo rentals. This is the basis of the land grabbing case for which Katungi was re-arrested and had himself remanded by the Makindye magistrate up to Friday 25th April.
This means the once very powerful Katungi, whose case has caused the president to commence clandestine investigations into some of his superiors in the Uganda police force for allowing or even aiding all this impunity for so long, will have to eat Easter in Luzira where sources say he will have to languish for several months if not years.
As they prepare to go for Easter, many victims of Katungi’s violence and impunity which he perfected using the Uganda police force as a platform, are thanking God for president Museveni who finally heard their cry and intervened before hundreds got crippled with Katungi-inflicted torture wounds. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
