Three Sheikh Kirevu family members whereabouts unknown

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The family of the late Sheikh Muhammad Kirevu is appealing to security agencies to release or produce three of their family members whose whereabouts remain unknown to them.

Sheikh Kirevu who was the Imam of Masjid Jamia Gangu, and a resident of Gangu B in Busabala-Makindye Ssabagabo division, Wakiso district, was killed in Katereke-Nsangi in Kyengera township on Thursday last week.

Police said the deceased was killed by the joint counter terror task teams when he violently tried to resist arrest, forcing security to put him out of action.

Police claimed that Kirevu was killed when its teams were trying to arrest him after getting information that he was recruiting people to join the Allied Democratic Forces-ADF, a rebel movement based in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has been accused of being behind the recent spate of bombings in Kampala.

But after his killing, six of his family members including children and their mothers were taken the next day after a house search that was conducted by the same joint counter terror security officers in Gangu and Nsangi. However, only three children were brought back on the same evening, according to the family.

Ibrahim Abas Ayubu Kirevu, a brother to the deceased told Uganda Radio Network-URN that three family members still in the hands of unknown security agencies are two wives of the deceased – Amina Nabadda and Sofia Nakacwa, plus Mariam Najjuko, a sister in law to the family who had visited them two days before the raids.

“We have visited different police stations, military barracks in Makindye to inquire about these people’s whereabouts, but until now, we don’t know their detention center,” he said. “Nothing is being told to us. The officers who picked them told us that they wanted them to answer a few questions and they would bring them back, but up to now we haven’t seen them. We’re stranded with children carrying for their mothers,” he said.

He is appealing to security agencies to release them or produce them in courts of law other than being held incommunicado.

Hajji Umaru Sebayiga, an uncle to the deceased, disputes security claims that their son was part of the rebel groups bombing Kampala. He questions why a suspect in handcuffs was blatantly murdered.

During his address to the nation over the weekend, President Museveni revealed that Sheikh Kirevu was part of 12 ADF terror members who have been killed since the June 1st attack on works and transport minister Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, an incident that left his daughter Brenda Nantongo and his driver Sgt Haruna Kayondo dead.

Our efforts to get a comment from Uganda Police Force on the whereabouts of the said three suspects and their charges was futile, after unanswered repeated calls to the police spokesperson Fred Enanga.

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URN