By Andrew Irumba
Three journalists working with online news outlet, Spy Reports have finally been released by detectives at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) after several hours of intense grilling.
Milton Tumusiime, Raymond Wamala and Johnson Taremwa, all directors of the above mentioned online publication were detained on Monday morning after they responded to summons via phone calls last week over a story they published about ACP Moses Kafeero, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander (KMP). They have now been ordered to report again tomorrow Tuesday.
The article they published involved a police officer identified as Paul Mushkom who allegedly broke into the office of another officer identified as Doreen Tumwebaze and allegedly robbed Shs200,000.
However, although Mushkom was arrested and later remanded to Luzira prisons, the circumstances surrounding his alleged theft and prosecution have since raised eyebrows, because of the way Kafeero reportedly handled the investigation.
It’s alleged in their story titled ‘Personal Assistant to Police Boss Faces 10 Years in Jail Over Robbery’ published on July 19th, 2019 that Paul Mushkom, the personal assistant to Frank Mwesigwa, the former KMP commander, id likely to face 10 years in prison in case he is convicted on robbery charges.
Mwesigwa was replaced by Moses Kafeero after the sacking of former Police Chief Gen.Kale Kayihura, but the journalists insinuate that there is beef between the two police officers.
In the article that caused the arrest of three journalists, it is alleged that Kafeero wanted Mushkom to confess that his boss Frank Mwesigwa had sent him to break into Tumwebaze’s office, which he refused to do.
It is also alleged that Kafeero wanted Tumwebaze to record a statement indicating that Mushkom had robbed her on gunpoint but she also refused, which infuriated him the more.
So we have leanrt that the journalists were picked up to help police with vital information that might help them solve the impasse, since Mushkom is already languishing in Luzira prison.
The police are however yet to issue a statement about the arrest of the journalists and why they were actually arrested.
