PRIME The criminal underbelly of city motorcycle gangs National Jun 30
The story
Some of the 80 suspected stolen motorcycles Kampala Metropolitan Police North recovered during an intelligence-led operation conducted in Rubaga Division, Kampala District early this month. Two of these motorcycles were suspected to have been used in a robbery in Muyenga, a Kampala suburb. PHOTO/ COURTESY OF UGANDA POLICE FORCE XHANDLE
A detective says in only three months, running from April to June, more than Shs1 billion has been reported to have stolen by thugs moving on motorcycles in four major cases which police have investigated.
Details
A troubling rise in daytime muggings and hijackings by criminal gangs targeting pedestrians and motorcycle riders is unsettling urban neighbourhoods. The criminal gangs, sometimes wielding machetes, often use motorcycles to chase down their victims or carry out swift snatch-and-run tactics before disappearing into the shadows with the stolen cash, valuables, and motorcycles.
Several of the victims were confronted in dark or isolated areas where there are no police closed circuit television {CCTV) cameras. Last Friday, Ms Edina Tumukunde, a shop attendant in Kamwokya, was reportedly accosted by four such masked assailants on two fast-moving motorcycles. They snatched her bag and vanished without a trace.
This is not an isolated case, as reports of similar snatch-and-grab incidents by men on motorcycles have surged across Kampala City and its environs in the recent months. Ms Tumukunde told this publication that she first lost consciousness for nearly 30 minutes before recovering and proceeding to Kira Road Police Station in Kampala, where she reported a case of robbery.
“’I was from my shop, I had Shs1 million (in cash) and my phone was also taken since it was in the bag,” shee said. Mr Vincent Walugembe, a motorcycle rider, was also waylaid by a group of men on motorcycles as he was returning home in Makindye Division, Kampala City.
He said someone posing as passenger stopped him as he headed home, but as they negotiated the fare, a group of four panga-wielding men on two motorcycles surrounded him and forced him to surrender his motorcycle.
“’I was assaulted by the thugs, lost consciousness but later recovered at about 10pm and proceeded to Katwe Police Station where I reported a case of robbery,” Mr Walugembe said. The increasing cases of attacks have, as a result, left the law and order authorities scrambling for a solution. Police detectives investigating the cases, on condition of anonymity, informed this publication that such robberies are done by a network of gangs across Kampala. A detective said the thugs who hijack motorcycles have direct co…
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