Wednesday saw members of the ECS team (Diana, Sam and me) return to the Kira Road police station to pick up the Inspector of Police, a Senior Constable and Babirye (a suspect in the latest child sacrifice case).
We then drove to Kayunga (about 2 hours north east of Kampala) to try to find and arrest Night (the cousin of Babirye), the primary suspect in the same child sacrifice case.
Night suddenly disappeared following the death of little Muhammed, the 4 year old boy from Kamwokya slum in Kampala, and the police have been searching for her for nearly a week. Babirye, who has been living in protective custody at Kira Road police station since the start of police investigations, informed the police on Tuesday night that she knew where Night was. Unfortunately as the Ugandan police force is under-funded and this is a low-profile case, the police weren't in a position to arrest her.
Senior Inspector Pande contacted KCM and asked if we were in a position to fund a pursuit of Night. To cut a long story short, I paid for the hire of a car and driver to take us all out to Kayunga. As Peter Sewakiryanga explains it, the only way for justice to be done and the person(s) responsible for the death of Mohammed to be brought to account is if someone personally funds it - and as Peter is keen to strengthen the partnership between KCM and the local police force, it made good sense to contribute in this way.
When we arrived in Kayunga District we went straight to the Nazigo police post and explained our mission to Joseph, the Officer in Charge. We were provided with three uniformed officers, two men (each armed with an AK47) and one woman (armed with a baton and hand cuffs). Together we drove to the community of Kirindi where Babirye told us Night would be. Unfortunately she wasn't to be found but the police did ask one of the ladies at this house, the sister of Babirye, to come back to the Nazigo police post. She spun many inconsistent stories about the last time she saw Babirye - none of which we believed and none of which we could disprove. The police spent many hours interrogating her (and others) until eventually she directed us to a person who directed us to Night.
There was a little bit of 'cat and mouse' before the police actually captured Night - given that it was 8.30pm and dark didn't help. Diana and I actually enjoyed about half an hour of fellowship with a group of students and their teacher from a local primary school while the police actually arrested her.
I was asked to pay each policeman 5,000 shillings for their time (I gave Joseph 20,000 shillings and a Gideon New Testament as I had spent much of my day with him) and we drove back to Kira police station via Nazigo police station, with Night.
To be honest, the manner in which the pursuit came to a conclusion was a bit of an anti-climax - but that was probably a good thing!
Prior to dropping into Kira Road police station we dropped Night off at Jinja Road police station where she was 'processed'. I understand she will be there for quite a while.
Another eventful day and a late night.
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