Almost every day, a message of a car that has been stolen in Kampala City or its outskirts is shared on social media. The stolen cars range from those that have been driven for years as well those that are still new.
Some of the latest cars stolen in Kampala include Premio UAX 348L and Corolla UAY 941U. These were reported stolen a day ago and the hunt for their whereabouts is ongoing. A female driver whose Corolla car was stolen from the parking in Kira-Bulindo, says her car has not been seen anywhere by Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras.
“It was in the parking. I have reported to the police but it has not been seen anywhere by CCTVs. That is the information I am getting from police. It is stressful and I don’t want to talk because of too many calls,” a female car victim said.
Unlike the Kira-Bulindo incident where the Corolla vehicle has not been seen on CCTVs, many of the stolen cars are captured but police have found it difficult to locate the exact place where these cars are being hidden.
One female drivers said she is tired of getting police updates of ‘we have seen somewhere’ here yet they are unable to recover it. “My car was stolen a week ago. Every day I get updates from police. They only say they have seen it Kisaasi, Kabusu and sometimes Makindye. I wonder why a car seen on CCTVs cannot be easily recovered,” another female victim said.
What is unique among the victims is that they have contacted the police’s violent crime units such as the Flying Squad Unit (FSU) that is currently under the command of Senior Superintendent of Police –SSP Andrew Kaggwa, Crime Intelligence under the command of Brig Chris Damulira and vehicle tracking unit under the command of Superintendent of Police –SP Sande.
“I thought when I contact such specialised units they would conduct searches in places where my vehicle is seen but this has not happened. I don’t know why police can’t cordon off the area if my car is seen on camera in a place like Kabusu,” a victim wondered.
Paul Senoga, an IT and car tracking expert, says there are blackspots where cameras are not erected or they have been damaged. This, Senoga bases on the fact of the recent CCTV video of an Ethiopian attacked by a gang on motorcycles where cameras did not show the directions the suspects took.
“One camera cannot see the car in Kyanja and others on the roads don’t see it on the road. It is possible the criminals know the blackspots. Another trick maybe the criminals load such cars into another big waiting cars. It is possible that once it is stolen, it is immediately loaded into another car probably parked in a blackspot,” Senoga says.
An SSP who is serving under one of the violence crime police unit intimated to Uganda Radio Network (URN) that the thugs sometimes place different number plates on these cars a reason they cannot be detected on cameras.
“We recently had an incident where a man was abducted in his car from Ankore up to Kyengera. The vehicle which had been monitoring on CCTVs disappeared in Kyengera and its now a month. It is in our black list but it is not sighted anywhere. We don’t know whether the owner who was abducted in it is still alive,” an SSP said.
A police officer told URN that on average they received five cases of cars that have been stolen in Kampala and its neighbouring district. The police officer adds that on Women’s Day which was on Tuesday this week, they received seven cases of stolen cars.
Senoga also puts the blame on laxity of officers manning CCTV control rooms. Like the two females whose cars have been stolen, Senoga wonders why police does not cordon off the areas where the CCTVs show the vehicle disappearing.
Senoga believes that drivers should install tracking devices because they will lead the owner up to the last place where it was parked. He adds that dismantling a tracking device is not easy and a thief would drive for a distance in order to reach a safe place where the tracker will be dismantled. In that process, the owner would able to successfully trail the thief.