The police force has refuted any rumours that the 80-year-old Costa Muhonja, a suspected Allied Democratic Forces -ADF remnant was not killed in their Kireka-based cell but collapsed to death.
Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, said Muhonja was arrested as a collaborator of ADF but he collapsed to death in a bathroom. It should be noted that the Inspector General of Police, Martin Ochola, shifted Special Investigation Division -SID from Kireka to the Criminal Investigations Directorate -CID headquarters in Kibuli.
However, the SID facility was left in the hands of intelligence forces, including Crime Intelligence and Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence -CMI. These two intelligence organizations have often arrested and kept suspects incommunicado at the same facility.
So, the sudden demise of Muhonjo at the former SID facility has been speculated as murder something Enanga refutes and insists that the suspect died of natural causes. “This is to inform the public that the remains of one Muhonja Costa, an 80-year-old, suspected ADF collaborator, who collapsed dead, after a fall in the bathroom, while in custody at Kireka detention facility, was claimed by his family,” Enanga said.
Ezra Tindyebwa has been identified as the person who claimed Muhonjo’s body and is the deceased’s son. Enanga added that the police force helped in the transportation of the body up to Kanyampara village, in the Kasese district, and also supported the burial arrangement with a coffin and foodstuff.
“As we handed over the remains, we warned the family and relatives against kinship recruitment, into terrorism where terrorists pay to recruit relatives of their operators, agents, and collaborators, for continuity of their valued relationships,” Enanga said.
Police said ADF dips into the family because trust is already established and the risk of recruiting the wrong people is minimized. On that background, police have strongly warned the family and relatives.