Two people are in custody at Serere Central Police Station for attempting to bribe the Deputy Criminal Investigations Directorate Officer to release murder suspects. They are Francis Kagwa Onyait and john Michael Ogwang, both residents of Kyere Sub County in Serere district.
They reportedly tried to bribe the officer in charge of criminal investigations Sezi Okoth with Shillings 600,000 to release eight murder suspects arrested vide CRB 169/2022. The eight were arrested in connection with the mob action on March 22, 2022, around 2:30 pm that led to the death of one Oluka, a resident of Abuket Village in Kyere Sub County for alleged theft of a sheep.
The East Kyoga Region Police Spokesman, Oscar Gregg Ageca, says that the murder suspects have since appeared in court while those who tried to bride the officer will appear before the court on Friday. He notes that the money for the bribe has been exhibited, adding that another 2,825,000 Shillings was recovered from the suspects and has equally been exhibited.
“We applaud the professional rigour of our officer, which is a representative image and professionalism of the Uganda Police Force, and to remind the public that extra-judicial action such as mob killings carry penal sanction against any person or group of persons who carry it out”, Ageca said in a press statement.
Adding that “We continue to warn the public that there are consequences in trying to bribe a police officer and that it’s an offence that is punishable by law. Every time you attempt to bribe an officer who has a duty to protect and serve, you tarnish his badge which is an affront to our code of ethics.”
When asked how many such cases of bribery have been reported in the region, Ageca said that the case in Serere is the first to be documented.
Uganda Police Force has repeatedly been named as the most corrupt government institution in the country. It was listed as the most corrupt institution in the 2022 report from a joint survey conducted by the Inspectorate of Government and Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).
For example, the Fourth National Integrity Survey report 2019/2020 that was released in 2021 in Kampala indicated that 70 per cent of respondents in 128 functional districts at the time of the survey named the regular police as the most corrupt. Within the Force, the traffic police was named the most corrupt by 67 per cent of the respondents followed by CID (57 percent).
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