Police in Kampala have arrested members of a criminal gang that has been robbing people of properties using motorcycles.
The suspects were arrested during an operation that took place on Thursday 1st December 2022.
Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police spokesman, said the suspects have been snatching bags from pedestrians, and phones from both motorists and pedestrians before fleeing on motorcycles which were identified by our CCTV cameras.
He said the suspects include Semakula Sadiq, 23, a resident of Ndejje Kanaba; Baguma Wise, 19, a resident of Kisenyi social centre; Tumusiime John, aka Mutoro, a resident of the social centre in Kisenyi; and Lubega Mustafa aka Ade a resident of Makerere Kivvulu.
“Our task teams have also established that the suspects got motorcycles on loan in the guise of using them for Boda Boda business, but instead, they ended up using them to rob the Public,” he said.
“We have also established where they sell the stolen items and efforts are on to have the promoters arrested. Our efforts to pacify the city from criminals with intelligence-led operations continue,” he added.
Since February, the crime rate has been high. The police have been attributing it to challenges of the reopening of the economy after two years of movement restrictions and curfew.
Police registered 1,000 more criminal cases last year than in 2020, the index Covid-19 year during which the severest lockdown and mobility restrictions began to apply.
This was a 0.1 percentage point rise in crime, or 196,931 cases up from195,931 registered the previous year.
