KAMPALA – Police on Saturday night issued a statement confirming the death of former Buyende DPC Muhammad Kirumira. He was gunned down by unknown assailants with his female friend in Bulenga, Wakiso District along Kampala Mityana Road.
Reports on Kirumira’s assassination started making rounds on social media around 8:40pm, with eye witnesses at the scene noting that attackers were riding on a red sport motorcycle without a licence plate.
The Observer news paper reported that the outspoke police official was killed by gunmen who reportedly shot more than 10 bullets at the vehicle – a black Toyota Corona registration number UAJ 228V before fleeing from the scene.
“Good Samaritans removed Kirumira and the female occupant from the vehicle and tried to rush them to hospital to save their lives in vain,” then media outlet said.
Adding: “The driver’s front door glass was shattered and the right hind tyre deflated. The driver’s door was bearing at least 5 visible bullet scars.”
The Observer also reported that although it’s 5-minute walk from the nearby police station, police came to the scene of crime after more than 30 minutes, according to eye-witnesses.
Police has earlier claimed that the other murdered civilian in Afande Kirumira’s car was Mrs. Mariam Kirumira (the wife), however it was later reported as “not true.”
“It was his sister in the co-driver’s seat,” the Daily Monitor reported.
Who is Muhammad Kirumira?
“I joined the police force on 29th January 2005. Unlike my fellow counterparts SPC Faisal Katende , Kasiba Moses and many more, I was recruited after doing an interview. I did training for a full year and was accorded a certificate as a probationary police constable.
“This goes against rumour that he joined police uneducated and from the streets. It is they that issue these controversial remarks that actually joined the institution through such procedure,” Kirumira recently narrated his journey to media.
Kirumira, who had served the police force for 13 years, rising from one rank to another, was earlier this year arrested on charges of extortion, corruption, bribery, torture, unlawful arrests and excessive use of authority.
This prompted Kirumira to resign from the Police Force, saying charges were irrelevant and lacking of sufficient evidence. He also cited frustrations from top Police bosses in his work as one of the reasons he had decided to quit.
“I have realised that my image before the administration will never change and given the fact that I am still a young man, I have resigned from the force to enable the Police court fulfil their motives,” he said in his statement at that time.
“The Police have persistently kept on looking at me as criminal and the purpose of this trial in an internal tribunal is to find ways of undermining my reputation,” he added.
Later in March, the Police Disciplinary Court dropped 8 charges against Muhammad Kirumira. In his ruling, the Police Disciplinary Court chairman, Denis Odongpiny noted that he had listened to the submissions by both Kirumira and prosecution and found that the accused had no case to answer since there was no evidence implicating him.
These included being accused of beating Ibrahim Bukenya, a hawker in 2013 while at Kawempe police station. Bukenya also accused Kirumira of eating his ‘rolex’ ( chappati and fried eggs) without his permission.
Kirumira is survived by three children, the youngest being only six months. The eldest daughter is in P.6 at Lincoln Junior in Bulenga, according to local media reports.
President Museveni visits murder scene
Following the shooting, President Yoweri Museveni visited the crime scene where Afande Muhammed Kirumira was brutally assassinated on Saturday Night at around 11:50pm.
Local media reported that he asked those who witnessed the shooting to volunteer information – two unidentified youth stood up from the crowd.
The President interrogated them for nearly five minutes on what they had seen.
“Eyewitness accounts show that the assassins came riding a red sport numberless motorcycle. The assassins who were dressed in black apparently monitored Kirumira’s movements until they got him in their target,” according to the Observer.
The President took both eyewitnesses with him as they were seen boarding one of the vehicles in the presidential motorcade.
ALSO READ: Kirumira to Christian Media: The Gospel should be preached further
editor@ugchristiannews.com
