A Ugandan police officer, Police Constable Ivan Wabwire, accused of fatally shooting an Indian moneylender, Uttam Bhandari, at Raja Chambers on Parliamentary Avenue in Kampala, has been committed to the High Court for trial. Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayizzi of the Buganda Road Court made the decision.
The indictment against Wabwire states that on May 12, he unlawfully killed Uttam Bhandari with malice aforethought. It details that on May 10, 2023, PC Steven Murombo, another police officer, signed for an SMG rifle AK 47 with 120 rounds of ammunition from the armory of Central Police Station (CPS) Kampala. Murombo then went to perform certain duties at Nakivubo Community Police Post and returned the gun on May 12.
On May 12, Murombo once again signed for the same rifle and informed the armory that he was going to perform certain duties at Nakivubo Community. He returned to his room in CPS, which he shared with Wabwire, with the rifle. Murombo changed into civilian clothes as he was going to seek medical attention, leaving Wabwire alone in the room.
Wabwire had a financial dispute with the deceased, who was a director and proprietor of TFS financial services, a money lending entity. Wabwire had secured a loan and defaulted on payments, leading to disagreements on the amount he owed. On May 12, 2023, Wabwire dressed in police uniform, took Murombo’s gun, and went to TFS financial services. He had a discussion with Bhandari, fired gunshots on the CCTV screen displaying the CCTV scenes, and shot the deceased several times, killing him.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) plans to rely on CCTV cameras and private surveillance cameras at Raja Chambers, Wabwire’s medical report indicating he was of normal mental state at the time, the postmortem report of the deceased, the crime scene report, and other evidence.
The DPP also noted that Wabwire had a chronic mental illness called schizophrenia but was deemed mentally fit to give a statement about his actions leading to the incident, and the illness did not influence his capacity to execute his actions resulting in the murder.
