Before he could be assassinated, Sheikh Mustapha Bahiga always suspected that Sheikh Yunus Kamoga wanted to kill him, a state witness told the High court’s International Crimes division (ICD) yesterday.
Sheikh Haruna Jjemba told court that Bahiga intimated his fears in a 2014 meeting called by NRM vice chairman Moses Kigongo to resolve the divisions in the Tabliq community. According to Jjemba, one Tabliq splinter group was led by Kamoga and the other to which Bahiga belonged had chosen him [Jjemba] as its leader.
“When Hajji Kigongo asked if we could work with Kamoga,” Jjemba said, “Bahiga replied we cannot work with Kamoga because he wants to kill us.”
While crying, Jjemba recounted how some fliers were distributed in several mosques by people that he didn’t know. That the fliers were not only calling for his [Jjemba] murder but also that of Bahiga and Sheikh Ibrahim Hassan Kirya, who was eventually murdered.
“I did not know the people who were writing the fliers but after their [fliers] distribution, Sheikh Bahiga was killed and later Sheikh Kirya was also killed,” Jjemba said, while holding back tears.
On Wednesday, a police officer who rushed Kirya and another victim to Mulago hospital after they were shot in Bweyogerere in June 2014, told court that the killers operated like trained assassins.
The officer, a sergeant whose name has been withheld in compliance with court’s request, testified on November 23, before judges Ezekiel Muhanguzi, Jane Kiggundu and Percy Tuhaise of the ICD.
According to the officer, shortly after Hassan Kirya was gunned down together with another victim at Bweyogerere, he communicated to fellow policemen notifying them about the incident and advising them to close roads. However, the killers still managed to escape towards Namugongo using a car with no number plate.
“When I heard six gunshots from a neigbouring police barracks a few meters away from the scene, I knew the guns came from an AK47. The way the two suspects were firing the bullets, one after another, and their quick escape towards Namugongo, indicates that they were trained assassins, not ordinary killers,” the 29-year-old officer told court.
On trial is Sheikh Kamoga, the head of the Tabliq sect, and 13 others. They are being tried for also allegedly participating in the killing of Bahiga at Bwebajja on December 28, 2014.
Testifying as the prosecution witness No 13, this witness, who is attached to Bweyogerere police station, told court that as someone once trained in military skills at Jinja army training wing, he is capable of distinguishing the ordinary and the trained assassin murder.
One of the defence lawyers, MacDosman Kabega, wanted to take him on to show his expertise but Lino Anguzu objected to this line of cross examining, arguing that he was not an expert witness. Muhanguzi sustained the objection.
However, this witness’ testimony came into question when he failed to explain how Kirya, whom he was rushing to Mulago causality wing when still alive, ended up in a mortuary without his death being pronounced by a trained doctor.
“When I reached the casualty place, onlookers told me that Kirya was dead and I also realised that he was dead and I took the body to the mortuary where I found the Inspector General of Police [Kale Kayihura] waiting,” he testified.
After explaining that he put the two gunned victims under the chairs of the police pick-up truck before rushing to Mulago, Kabega said the officer could have killed Kirya by torture and negligence by not sitting him on the car seats, failing to call an ambulance and also leaving nearby private hospitals and going all the way to Mulago.
However, the officer argued that in emergency cases, if he chose to wait for an ambulance, he risked being beaten by the people around. Not done, Kabega also claimed that the officer stole money and other valuable items that Kirya had in his pockets, an allegation he vehemently denied.
“It is true I checked the first victim [Kirya] but I found nothing in his pockets but one of the people around gave me his two mobile phones, a bunch of keys and some papers with no money. I remember the first victim’s wife asking me for the money her husband had and I told her somebody else could have taken it. The second victim had no coin on him,” the witness further testified.
The 12th witness, a female Detective Superintendent, presented to court 13 exhibits of photographs he took from the Bwebajja scene where Sheikh Bahiga was gunned from.
When presented to court, Kabega noticed that although she insisted that she took them at night, they bore light and showed a blue sky, indicating that they were taken during the day.
The accused are also battling charges of attempting to murder Sheikhs Jjemba, Muhammad Kibaate as well as Prince Kassim Nakibinge, the titular head of the Muslim community in Uganda.
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