Justice Michael Elubu of the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court has upheld the decision of Buganda Road Magistrate Esther Asiimwe banning a senior police officer from holding a public office for a period of ten years after being convicted on charges of abuse of office.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Andrew Junior Muhereza challenged both conviction and sentence made against him after he was told to pay a fine of Shs3,360,000m or to serve one year in prison should he default on payment of the fine.
He was also ordered to pay the victims for his actions Shs300,000/- as compensation and barred from holding public office for 10 years which the appellant judge upheld.
“I have found that the appellant’s actions were in excess of his statutory authority and were certainly detrimental to the interests of the Uganda Police Force, which enforces the law. In that way, the last two elements of the offence: that the appellant acted in abuse of authority, and that his actions were prejudicial to the interests of the Uganda Police, have both been established,” the judge stated.
More Read
According to Court records, in 2019, Muhereza, a police officer was deployed as the officer in charge of Acacia Police Post in Kampala Central.
It alleged that on 25th November 2019, Muhereza dressed in police uniform, went to Kawempe Police Station and booked in the station diary as SN 25/25/11/2019.
From there, he went to Katale Primary School police post and he told the female officer in charge that he was an officer from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) following up on inquiries in the area.
When she asked him whether he needed reinforcements, he assured him that he did not and from there he proceeded to an open yard belonging to Performance Furnishings Ltd which is located within the area where he met Harrison Mwezinane and John Mukisa who were employed there as Farm Manager and Supervisor, respectively.
After meeting them, he introduced himself as an officer attached to URA and he told them that he was conducting an operation which involved him carrying out a search of their premises.
He further told them that once he is done, he will send the tree logs to URA headquarters where they would be scanned.
The two men resisted and retorted that they could provide a vehicle to transport the scanner from URA Headquarters to Kawempe so that the logs are examined on site which Muhereza rejected.
It was eventually agreed that the logs, 197 in number, be marked and numbered with paint, loaded on tracks to URA. Three lorries were used with the last one leaving the yard after 10.00 pm.
Muhereza filled out a search certificate which was signed by the people present. He assured them that the said certificate was going to be used as a reference when the owners follow-up on the logs at the URA headquarters.
Muhereza signed on the certificate as AIP Mitango.
The next day when the owners of the logs went to URA Headquarters to follow up on the scanning of the logs, they were shocked to find that the logs were not there and there was no record of the operation, or the officer, or any trace of the documents the officer had left with him.
They decided to report the matter to the Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU) and engaged a private detective who traced the logs to Goods Shed, a commercial spot in Kampala.
196 logs were recovered by the police, exhibited, and returned to the complainant for custody and on the same day, as they were following up their complaint at PSU, they found Muhereza arrested and seated in a room with PSU officers.
At PSU, they discovered that Muhereza was not Mitango as he told them. They also established that the reference number that he had used to book in was similar but not the same as a number the one URA had once used for an investigation into the smuggling of Ivory and Pangolin scales.
In his defence, Muhereza told Court that a man called Muyambi, a security operative told him he had an operation to carry out in Kawempe.
Because Kawempe was outside his jurisdiction, he referred him to ASP Umaru Kitaka, the officer in charge of operations in Kawempe.
He added that after registering at Makerere University, he moved to Kawempe where he operates a beer depot as a side business. While there, he received a call from Kitaka inviting him to a place called Katale Police Post in Kawempe.
He claims that at Katale, he booked his presence and then went to the scene where Kitaka had directed him and found Muyambi and Mitango.
He insisted that the lorries at the scene and the local leaders in the area were present. But surprisingly, after one week, a complaint was raised and he was summoned to PSU where the matter had been reported.
He was charged with Irregular Conduct, which was later amended to impersonation.
