Police Constable (PC) Ivan Wabwire had a ‘strange’ medical condition that prompted the Uganda Police Force (UPF) administration to transfer him to a less demanding role, Kampala Metropolitan Police has revealed, offering a peek into health of the officer who shot dead a money lender of Indian origin on Friday, May 12, 2023.
According to KMP Spokesperson Patrick Onyango, PC Wabwire had a medical condition which he did not explain – but most likely mental health-related – and had been this had prompted management at the Kampala Central Police Station (CPS) to direct that he should not be assigned a gun for fear that he might harm himself or others.
That decision was taken six years. CPS had also transferred Wabwire to the CCTV Camera Monitoring Centre since this role did not require him to carry a gun.
It has also emerged that Wabwire was supposed to be off-duty on the day the shooting happened.
So, how did a police who had been barred from touching guns – and one who was supposed to be off duty – acquire one that he used to kill a money lender he was struggling to pay?
Onyango says that because there was limited accommodation space, Wabwire has been sharing a house with Police Constable Steven Mulambo, a fellow police officer, who had come back home with the weapon. That on May 12, 2023, this colleague of his had worked during the night shift and did not return the gun to the armory.
PC Mulambo went home with the gun. While at home, continued the KMP police publicist, he received a call that his child was sick. The call prompted him to rush to check on his child. He left the gun behind.
It is this same gun that PC Wabwire used to shoot the Indian money lender.
Police has since arrested Mulambo and detained him at Kireka.
PC Wabwire was yet to be arrested, with reports that he had left Kampala for Rukungiri where his wife is said to be working. Onyango said that Wabwire had jumped out of the Rukungiri-bound bus before officers could arrest him.
These revelation answer part of the six questions for which President Museveni has demanded answers from police chief IGP Martins Okoth Ochola and his team. (See Details Here).
You can watch the CCTV footage of the moment when PC Wabwire shot dead the Indian money lender and another video of him walking majestically to Kampala CPS where he abandoned the killer gun before running away Here.
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