Friends, colleagues and relatives have lavished a great deal of personal attention on slain Andrew Felix Kaweesi, whose meteoric rise through the police ranks was cut short by assassins last Friday.
A lot that was hitherto unknown about Kaweesi has begun to spill into public view. The latest are bits about how he joined the police force and interviews with his friends offer an interesting insight.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Makerere University in 1997, Kaweesi got a job with Masaka district administration as a personal assistant to then LC-V chairman Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja.
According to Ssempijja, the current minister for agriculture, animal industry and fisheries, Kaweesi was introduced to him by his [Ssempijja’s] late wife, Jennifer.
“She knew his family and she thought he would help me [with office work]. She is the one who brought him,” Ssempijja told The Observer on Monday at Lubaga cathedral, after the requiem mass for the late Kaweesi. “He first worked as a volunteer but was later confirmed as district staff.”
A former Masaka district staff who preferred anonymity said that during the 2001 recruitment of police cadet officers, Ssempijja called up former prime minister Amama Mbabazi, who was defence minister at the time, and asked him to get Kaweesi onto the list of fresh university graduates to be recruited.
Asked to comment, Ssempijja laughed and played down his role in getting Kaweesi recruited.
“It was an official recruitment exercise; we received a letter from the ministry of Internal Affairs calling for disciplined graduates to join the police. I sat him [Kaweesi] down and interested him in joining the police,” Ssempijja said.
At the time, Joseph Mukwaya, the then Masaka chief administrative officer (CAO), had offered Kaweesi a promotion.
“We weighed the options and decided that he joins the police because it was a better option,” Ssempijja recalled.
He passed out as a cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (C/ASP) in 2001 and was straight away deployed in Ntungamo as district police commander (DPC). He later became an aide to Gen Katumba Wamala, the then inspector general of police (IGP).
RISE
By the time Gen Kale Kayihura was appointed IGP in 2005, Kaweesi was an instructor at the police training school, Kabalye, in Masindi district. Under Kayihura, Kaweesi’s star shone even brighter. Within six years, he had risen to the position of assistant inspector general of police (AIGP), the third-highest rank in the police after IGP and deputy IGP.
On his rapid promotion, Ssempijja said the Kaweesi he knew was a hardworking man and, therefore, well deserving of his accolades.
“His promotion was based on merit, not because he was somehow connected; he knew no one in the police, he is self-made and I am sure his bosses were impressed by his performance,” Ssempijja said.
Addressing mourners at Lubaga, Kayihura said Kaweesi caught his eye after he consistently challenged him during his meetings with police commanders.
“I only took over supervising him in 2005 [when I was appointed IGP]. He showed his leadership abilities because he was deputy commandant of Masindi police training school and was taken to Sudan and Somalia as a police consultant,” Kayihura said of Kaweesi.
“I knew very few police officers, the majority were strangers to me but in our meetings, there was always an officer [Kaweesi] who was always challenging me. While others kept quiet, Kaweesi was always challenging me on some of the ideas I was bringing [to police],” Kayihura added.
“I said, this man will help me to fit in as a good commander, that’s how I appointed him my personal assistant so that he could advise me.”
Kaweesi went on to hold various command posts, some of which brought him into conflict with politicians such as Mbabazi, a man he had reportedly leaned on to get recruited.
In July 2015, Kaweesi arrested Mbabazi at Njeru, near Jinja, as the latter travelled to Mbale to launch his presidential bid. A smiling Kaweesi politely asked the former prime minister to enter a waiting police pick-up truck after which he was driven back to Kampala without a scuffle. According to Ronald Kibuule, the minister of state for water, this incident demonstrated Kaweesi’s professionalism.
“He had respect for opposition leaders, even if he had to arrest them, he would never humiliate them by throwing them onto police trucks,” Kibuule said.
While Kibuule urged the cops to emulate Kaweesi’s professionalism, it’s clear many other people and some policemen loathed the deceased’s work ethic.
“Kaweesi may have been killed because by omission or commission he may have stepped on some people’s toes,” said minister of state for Internal Affairs Mario Obiga Kania during Kaweesi’s requiem mass at Lubaga.
Speaking at the burial yesterday, Gen Katumba Wamala, a former inspector general of police from 2001 to 2005, said Kaweesi was recruited alongside Grace Akullo, the CIID director, Fred Enanga and Simeo Nsubuga, among others, as part of an effort to implement Justice Julia Sebutinde’s commission recommendation to rebuild the police force.
Katumba confirmed that Kaweesi was recommended for recruitment by Sempijja. He said Kaweesi and group were the first police recruits to undergo military training.
“By the time Kaweesi joined the police, he had no godparents, because some of you complain that you are not growing in rank because you have no godparents. Godparenting is not something that will propel your career, it’s your work,” Katumba said.
sadabkk@observer.ug