Kenya police planted two pistols in Besigye’s room, “stupid” state witness tells court

A key prosecution witness in the treason case against Dr Kizza Besigye and his co-accused has told the High court that it appeared Kenyan police planted two pistols in the Nairobi apartment where the suspects were arrested.

Wilson Andrew, alias Orlando, also admitted that the scene appeared to have been stage-managed and that the operation that took him from Uganda to Kenya, including the provision of fake money and firearms, was arranged by security operatives.

Orlando made the claims during cross-examination by lawyers representing Besigye’s co-accused Hajji Obeid Lutale. He said he travelled by road from Uganda with an associate identified as “Zac” to meet Besigye and Lutale in Nairobi on November 15, 2024.

According to Orlando, he was driven from Entebbe to the Ugandan-Kenyan border, where he was handed over to Kenyan security operatives on November 16. He said he later met the suspects at about 4:45 pm.

Orlando told the court that when he entered the apartment, two fully loaded TT Tokarev and FN 49 pistols were already on a table before Lutale arrived.

He said he unloaded the firearms for his own safety and that, from the circumstances, it appeared the weapons had been placed in the room about 30 minutes earlier by Kenyan police officers who later participated in the arrest of Besigye and Lutale.

‘Stage-managed’ scene

Under cross-examination, Orlando described the crime scene as “obviously” stage-managed.

He said the apartment had been arranged by security operatives and admitted that he had “lured” Besigye and Lutale into the room. He, however, said the arrangements were not his responsibility, although he acknowledged receiving “facilitation” and “extremely limited resources” from the Ugandan government.

Orlando also said he did not know why he and Zac were not arrested by Kenyan police during the raid. He told court that he was able to return to the same apartment and sleep there after the operation.

When lawyers pointed out that the apartment would ordinarily have been cordoned off as a crime scene, Orlando agreed that it would have been. He further admitted that by returning to sleep in the apartment, he had tampered with the crime scene.

Orlando also said he did not know who took away a box containing fake money, which he acknowledged had never been presented in court as an exhibit.

Disputed recordings

The witness also faced questions over audio and video recordings he allegedly made during his meetings with the suspects. He said he used a power bank fitted with a covert camera and a magnetic audio recorder to capture the Nairobi meeting.

Orlando said he transferred the recordings from the devices to his cloud account but could not confirm whether the original footage remained on the devices or their microSD cards.

Describing himself as “stupid” and “completely uneducated”, he said he could not remember whether he had deleted the footage because he downloads and uploads large amounts of content.

He was also unsure whether the footage remained on his cloud account, saying he could only access the account using a laptop that was not in Uganda.

The laptop, he said, had not been handed over to Ugandan investigators and was last in Uganda in 2023, a year before the alleged meeting with Besigye and Lutale.

Lawyers also confronted Orlando with an earlier police statement in which he reportedly said Kenyan police officers deleted footage from his recording devices as he fled during the raid.

He told court that he was now unsure whether the Kenyan officers had deleted the footage.

Orlando further admitted editing footage that he subsequently submitted to investigators and which allegedly implicated the accused.

Expected payment

The witness also told court that he expected to be paid by the Ugandan government for “selling the story” against Besigye and Lutale.

He said he had been living in Uganda for about six months while awaiting the trial and would be happy if the government paid him a monthly allowance to meet his expenses.