Police says a spate of unresolved murders in Uganda is forcing investors to stay away from the country.
According to Felix Ndyomugyenyi, a senior police officer, since 2011, the number of investors coming to Uganda has reduced, with unresolved murders partly to blame. In four years between 2011 and 2015, according to police statistics, about 4,056 people were murdered in Uganda and only 70 suspects convicted. On average, it means at least 1,000 people are murdered every year.
“Investments in homicide-rid- den countries are severely disrupted. No foreign investor can risk investing in such countries. Even local investors shy away for fear of being targeted,” said detective Ndyomugyenyi, the police’s deputy director for human re- source development and training. The one week course at Naguru, sponsored by Germany, has attracted detectives from Uganda and Kenya.
“Unresolved murder cases of high-profile people like the killing of state prosecutor Joan Kagezi [in 2015] and Muslim sheiks[in 2013 to date], among others, dissuade investors from coming to Uganda,” Ndyomugyenyi said.
“The killing is very high while the conviction rate is just two per cent which is below standards. If we are to improve on our investment, this must stop,” he said
Ndyomugyenyi said the spike in homicide cases is brought on by poor investigation methods. “We have lost most of the murder cases in courts of law due to poor investigation methods that produce insufficient evidence,” he said.
He said Ugandan detectives need to do forensic investigations to gather enough solid evidence to pin suspects in courts of law.
“We have lost high-profile cases in court because we produce evidence of pen and paper, which is always not enough,” he said, adding that if police are to secure a high number of convictions, they must apply scientific methods of investigations.
Ndyomugyenyi also said the police will train 2,000 scene-of-crime officers in how to manage scenes of crime and assemble critical evidence.
“Most of our officers don’t have enough expertise to manage and secure scenes of crime and exhibits and this has greatly affected investigations,” he said.
He further said that officers will be trained in how to handle transnational crime, which is very common.
“Since we have officers from Kenya, we shall tackle transnational crime and how to handle it because most of the suspects who kill people in Kenya hide in Uganda and vice versa,” he said.
The Observer couldn’t independently verify Ndyomugyenyi’s claim of investment flight due to murders. Uganda Investment Authority officials could not be reached for comment by press time. Everest Kayondo, the chair- person of the Kampala City Traders Association, said he did not have statistics about murder and investment.
“What I know very well is that hacking of foreigners’ bank accounts by Ugandans has reduced our investments,” Kayondo said.
“Most investors have failed to invest in Uganda because they fear to lose their money on their accounts,” he said, adding that police must fight cybercrime.