Uganda’s Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew, Mr. Felix Kaweesi, has been killed by gunmen riding on motorcycles. The killing on Friday has forced the country’s President Yoweri Museveni to give an order for the immediate installation of cameras in all major towns and along the highways.
The Uganda’s second most prominent policeman was shot in his car along with two other officers as he left his home in Kampala, police said The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kale Kayihura, confirmed that Mr Kaweesi was in the company of his two guards when he was killed. “The motive is yet to be established,” he added.
A local resident described seeing four men on two motorcycles attack the car the police officers were travelling in at around 9:30am (+3GMT) . “Two motorbike riders and two men with guns fired at the car. They shot very rapidly with guns that looked like AK47s,” said Mohammad, a motorcycle rider who lives and works in the area. The motorbikes came from behind as the car was leaving Kaweesi’s house. The car driver tried to increase speed but they drove past the car and shot into it,” said the 30-year-old who declined to give his surname. The motorbikes were new and the shooters looked professional. They weren’t wearing masks but I didn’t see their faces because I ran for cover.”
Mr Kaweesi rose to prominence as he spearheaded the police response to widespread opposition party protests following a controversial 2011 presidential election. After a stint as commander of Kampala Metropolitan Police, he was appointed director of operations and then head of human resources before assuming the role of main police spokesman in August 2016. He appeared regularly on television talk shows, his most recent appearance being Thursday night on NTV, one of the major private channels in the country.
Reaffirming the importance of his order, Museveni, said: “We have been planning to do this project for some time but we have been postponing it on account of other priorities like the roads and electricity. “Since, however, these thugs think they can use this remaining gap in our otherwise robust security frame-work, I have decided and directed the Minister of Finance to work with Police to immediately close this gap,” said President Museveni is a statement.
He advised that the security personnel and all citizens to be on the lookout for the “thugs who have made it a habit to use motorcycles to kill people”.
Read more: Africa Review
