KAMPALA – The Monday raid on the offices of telecommunication giant MTN by security operatives was precipitated by allegations that the company was evading tax and to find call data on some suspects being held in connection with the murder of former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi, PML Daily can exclusively report.
Early this week, this website reported that operatives from ISO arrested an MTN data engineer called Keefa Musasizi whom they held until night when they took him to the data centre base in Mutundwe. On Tuesday, the data centre remained switched off.
And now highly placed security sources have told PML Daily that the security operatives sought to find out information from call logs of the suspects in the Kaweesi murder after discovering that the call data between Kaweesi and the suspects had been deleted.
Kaweesi together with his bodyguard Kenneth Erau and his driver Godfrey Mambewa were showered with bullets as they left home in Kulambiro, Kampala, on March 7, 2017.
ISO and CMI took over the investigation from police after it was revealed that the crime may have been an inside job. So far, former Flying Squad operatives have been arrested over the crime.
It has emerged that as part of the investigation, security operatives discovered that all call data of people who had communicated with Kaweesi in the days leading up to the murder has been deleted.
Therefore, it is said the raid was to ascertain whether this was the case and who could have been responsible.
Security sources also revealed that the raid intended to establish if the Telecom company has been evading tax through underdeclaration of profit as alleged by President Museveni.
While making case for levying social media tax, the President said government was losing revenue through under declaration of their revenue.
Sources said the raid was conducted with the knowledge of the President.
Following the arrest of Abbey Kitagenda, a former Flying Squad operative at the end of May, he is said to have cooperated with CMI and ISO operatives and volunteered more information about the role of some Flying Squad Unit officers in the Kaweesi murder. Kitagenda was formerly in-charge of Kawempe North under FSU and was a close confidant of Nixon Agasirwe, who is currently facing kidnap and other charges before the military court.
About two weeks ago, CMI and ISO operatives are said to have arrested former FSU operatives Martin Kimbowa, Chris Ahimbisibwe and Moses Kasibante. As a result, several former FSU operatives are said to be hiding while others fled the country following the arrest of Kitagenda.
Kitagenda himself is said to have left the country for Canada after Kaweesi’s murder and only returned recently. He is said to have been processing a visa to Canada in different names. Sources said CMI were tipped off by Internal Affairs ministry officials after Kitagenda tried to secure a new passport in other names.
Highly placed security sources told this website that CMI and ISO operatives are hunting for more suspects, including Jonathan Baroza, the former Personal Assistant of detained former police chief, Gen Kale Kayihura. Operatives picked Ahimbisibwe from Bushenyi where he has allegedly been hiding.
Sources further intimated to this website that one of the arrested former FSU operatives revealed that they had interfered with the Kaweesi murder investigation. The ISO investigators then led him to the scene of crime in Kulambiro and reconstructed the murder scene, lending further credence to the previous conclusions by Forensic experts from the government analytical laboratory that Kaweesi’s car would have been stopped by someone familiar to him before the shooting. This is because, sources added, the vehicle after the shooting was found in proper stop mode with the headlamps all switched on and handbrake engaged.
Sources familiar with the investigation have further told this website that Kitagenda confessed that he stopped Kaweesi’s car before he, his driver and bodyguard were sprayed with over 150 bullets.
Investigators add that in the shooting, the assailants did not use the commonly available AK47 assault rifles. They are believed to have used the specialised M4 guns, which are a preserve of specialized security units such as police counter-terrorism and Special Forces Command. The gun has a maximum range of 3,600 meters and a range for a point target of 500m.
Kitagenda’s confession, sources said, also implicated former FSU boss Herbert Muhangi, who is being detained, and former head of Crime Intelligence in police Atwooki Ndahura, who was on Friday charged and sent to the military prison.