President Yoweri Museveni has ordered Jinja Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Eric Sakwa to vacate office and directed the office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to investigate his murder charges .
The directive was issued in a letter written by President Museveni to the Minster in Charge of the Presidency Hon. Esther Mbayo, dated May 11, 2020, instructing her to handle the matter to its logical end.
President Museveni’s letter to Minister Mbayo states thus;
I have received your letter of the 6th of May, 2020, regarding Mr Sakwa.
Mr Sakwa is accused of being present when a Mwanainchi was being beaten by LDUs and that the Mwaninchi died, etc. I have since got information that this was a frame up by some corrupt people in the Jinja area that are fighting Sakwa because of his good work. That, moreover, Sakwa was not on the scene and that the man fell down later and died from the injuries caused by the fall, etc.
A Ugandan dying is very serious. It is in the interests of, first and foremost Sakwa, for facts to come out establishing the truth. Was Sakwa on the scene when the LDUS were bearing a Mwanainchi? That would be bad enough even if the Mwanainchi didn’t die. Violence by security forces should only be used in self-defence, if a suspect is violent. Even then, it should be violence to subdue the suspect and arrest him, not anything else.
With addition of death, it becomes very serious. It is good that Sakwa got bail. Let him go on leave for two months and work with the Director of Public Prosecutions and the court systems to get the facts and conclude the case.
This is not a political matter for dialogue. It is a serious criminal allegation. If the accusers of Sakwa are lying, it will boomerang on them.”
Sakwa was on April 25th arrested and charged with manslaughter, a crime of killing a person without malice aforethought (conscious intent to kill).
According to the charge sheet, between March 22 and April 17, at Lwanda Village in Jinja District, Sakwa unlawfully caused the death of Charles Isanga, a businessman.
Sakwa was jointly charged with Bumali Bazimbyewa, 19, a mechanic, and Simba Mohammed, alias, Meddie, 31, a businessman in Jinja, before being remanded to Kirinya government prison in Jinja until May 13, when he was granted bail.
Sakwa, his co-accused and alleged accomplices who are still at large, according to prosecution, allegedly stole Shs80,000, three crates of beer, eight trays of eggs, sachets of waragi and soda, valued at approximately Shs429,000 from Isanga’s shop on the day he was murdered.