The High Court recently found nine Ugandans guilty of the 2018 kidnapping and subsequent murder of Susan Magara.
Yusuf Lubega, Hussein Wasswa, Hassan Kato Miiro, Muzamir Ssali, Hajara Nakandi, Abubakari Kyewolwa, Mahad Kisaliita, Ismail Bukenya and Musa Abbas Buvumbo were found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Magara by cutting off her oxygen supply, courtesy of a black polythene bag.
Plan hatched
For the Susan Magara case, the State insisted that the information that was used to pin the accused was largely ‘freely’ contributed by suspects. The suspects were apprehended after security forces led by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI)-now Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS)-pinned them down using phone tracking.
Per court records, the State’s case has been that at the end of 2017, the convicts, who were members of Usafi mosque in Kampala, came up with an idea of financially helping orphans and widows who were under their guardianship.
The State claimed the convicts admitted that they had about three meetings in Usafi in which they agreed that the only way to get the money needed to help the widows and orphans was by demanding a ransom from a wealthy family after kidnapping a loved one.
The State asserted that it was Ismail Bukenya, who was listed on the charge sheet as Accused Number Eight, who came up with the idea of kidnapping one of the members of the Magara family. The State further claimed that Bukenya, a boda-boda rider, had previously worked for the Magara family, transporting their luggage.
He told his fellow masterminds that the family had the means to pay a huge ransom. The State claimed that the group first targeted Susan’s stepmother, Immaculate Magara, but, upon surveilling her several times, aborted the mission since they couldn’t pin her down as she was always in the company of many people.
Susan kidnapped
The masterminds then-per the State-turned their efforts onto Susan, whom they first tried to kidnap in Makindye but were unsuccessful. Yet things would change on February 7, 2018.
Yusuf Muhindo Mugururu, a friend of Susan’s, called her, and as they chatted on the phone, he heard her say, ‘Don’t beat me!’ It didn’t take Muhindo long to notice that there was a scuffle. He promptly called a friend-a police officer, Jonathan-who called the District Police Commander (DPC). Muhindo then called his cousin-Scovia Keguho-who then called Robert Magara-Susan’s uncle.
On February 8, 2018, the Magara family received a call from 0759 249058 informing them that Susan was in their custody. On February 9, 2018, the same caller demanded a $1m ransom. Ransom negotiations continued, and the amount was later reduced to $200,000.
The kidnappers directed the family to multiple ransom collection points (Masaka Road on February 15, Matugga on February 17, and Kanaaba-Ndejje on February 24). The first two attempts failed because the kidnappers detected security personnel. On February 24, $200,000 was successfully delivered at Ndejje-Lubuguma.
It seems that as the negotiations between the family and the kidnappers were going on, the security agencies were secretly recording them. That’s why the prosecution easily tendered phone recordings that captured the kidnappers insisting the money should not be paid in instalments or be counterfeit.
The State also relied on CMI telecommunications expert, Frank Nyakairu, who traced Susan’s phones immediately after the abduction and prepared a communication matrix showing that all accused persons were in constant contact with each other.
The communication matrix also linked the accused with the anonymous ransom numbers before, during, and after the offence. Mr Nyakairu’s cybercrime analysis placed several accused (Yusuf Lubega, Hakim Lugoloobi, Mahad Kisaliita, etc.) in the same locations as the ransom collection points (Masajja, Matugga, Namasuba) at the material times.
Roles played
Nyakairu claimed that Miiro kidnapped and guarded Susan. He claimed that Nakandi kept Susan in her room in Nateete before she was transferred. The State claimed that Nakandi admitted she was selected to take custody of Susan because they were targeting a female. Kyewolwa collected the ransom at Ndejje-Lubugumu.
Nyakairu’s evidence on Kyewolwa’s participation was corroborated by police officer Wasswa Ssegawa who was behind the scenes as the ransom of about Shs700m was being delivered in broad daylight at Ndejje-Lubugumu.
Ssegawa disclosed that he saw a lady identified as Flora Magara (Susan’s auntie), who testified in court as Prosecution Witness Number Seven, drop a black laptop bag that presumably had the ransom and a phone near Ndejje.
Minutes later, Ssegawa and his companions saw a man resembling the late musician Mowzey Radio, whom they later identified as Kyewolwa, pick up the bag after the woman left.
In Nyakairu’s analysis, Kisaliita provided funds for lines and fuel; Ssali received and decided on how to use the money. Lubega was involved in surveillance, kidnapping, ransom collection and body disposal as the driver.
Nyakairu said Yakubu Byensi, who has since been on the run, was the co-driver, Buvumbo acted as the ‘doctor’ who administered ketamine to kill Susan, and that other accused persons performed various roles.
Trading accusations
The defence insisted that the bulk of the narratives in the case the State built was merely hearsay. This included mosque planning meetings, role distribution, surveillance, kidnapping, execution using toy pistols, masks and a hammer, hostage shifts between Nateete and Konge, finger chopping by a ‘medical team’, as well as ransom counting at Konge.
Other claims revolved around vehicle purchases, land identification and money exchange. These, defence said, were just mere hearsay from retracted statements attributed to Lubega. When he took to the witness dock, Lubega not only claimed that he was tortured to confess but also said his child was killed when security operatives raided Usafi Mosque.
On its part, the prosecution insisted that the arrest of Lubega turned out to be the most violent. They said when security operatives apprehended him at Usafi Mosque, Lubega hid inside. After, one of the mosque-goers got a machete and hacked the hand of one of the security operatives while saying ‘Allahu Akbar’ meaning God is the greatest.
Justice Alex Mackay Ajiji didn’t take Lubega’s claims that he was tortured to disclose the information that he revealed seriously. The jurist opined that the accused didn’t prove torture. Rather, Justice Ajiji believed Mr Nyakairu, who said in one of the security meetings with Abas Byakagaba, then head of Crime Intelligence, he was briefed that a good Samaritan had identified the ransom seeker as Yakubu Byensi, a Muslim extremist who prays at Usafi Mosque.
Mr Nyakairu said the informant also provided the phone numbers of Yakubu Byensi as 0772674865, then 0704715578, another one 070142718, and the last one 0706349787.
Communication matrices
It was also Mr Nyakairu’s evidence that, based on the above information they had obtained, he prepared a communication matrix using a machine Y2K, which showed Byensi’s associates. The matrix indicated that Yakubu was in constant communication with the following numbers: 0702318422, which belonged to Lubega and 0758478810, which belonged to Lugoloobi, who, like Byensi, has since disappeared.
Mr Nyakairu further told the court that the matrix he prepared indicated that all the accused persons, Lubega, Wasswa, Ssali, Nakandi, Kyewolya, Kisaliita, Miiro, Bukenya and Buvumbo, were in constant communication before, during and after the kidnapping of the late Susan Magara.
Another piece of prosecution evidence that Justice Ajiji found believable was the cybercrime report put together by Enock Kanene. In February 2018, Mr Kanene analysed the telecommunications made during the kidnapping and ransom period: he established that 0758478810 in the name Hakim Lugoloobi was in the same location in Masajja Zana when 0751229471, an anonymous number in Owino James’s name, called Immaculate Magara on February 19, 2018.
Mr Kanene’s report also indicated that this anonymous number was in communication with another number 0757008906 in Isma Bukenya’s name at Namasuba. The report indicated that on the same date, February 19, 2018, Lugoloobi, using the same number 0758478810 communicated to 0759510047 registered in the name of Mahad Kisaliita, a number which was also linked to the anonymous number.
In Mr Kanene’s analysis, the numbers 0702318422 in Yusuf Lubega’s name, 0704715578 of Yakubu Byensi, 0772674865 of Yakub Byensi, 0705284468 of Hassan Kato, 0752444634 of Abbas Musa, 0701242718 of Yakub Byensi, 0782739003 of Bukenya Isma and 0705780720 of Hussein Wasswa were all found to be common associates of number 0758478810 in Hakim Lugoloobi’s name. They were all also in the same location of Namasuba, Masajja Zone, which was a ransom-picking spot.
Mr Kanene further established in his report that 0702318422 in the name of Yusuf Lubega was used in Matugga, another ransom collection spot, during the same time when anonymous number 0754730481 communicated to Susan’s uncle John Magara, who was in Matugga on February 17, 2018.
Mr Kanene’s report indicated that Lubega’s number happened to be associated with Lugoloobi, who was also in Matugga, the same location that was, on that day. Kanene further explained that, with recent technology, even if a number is not in use, it can still be traced via location and the numbers that have called it.