Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Samuel Bamuzibire, a police officer described by many Dr Kizza Besigye activists as a tormentor, has succumbed to Covid19.

SSP Bamuzibire, the Kampala Metropolitan 999 Patrol commander, passed on at Nsambya Hospital after spending three days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

“Bamuzibire has just died of COVID-19. He was rushed there three days ago and he has been in the Intensive Care Unit. I think our bosses will issue an official statement,” a source said.

When he served as the Kampala Field Force Unit commander in 2016, Bamuzibire brutalized Besigye and his supporters at Najjanankumbi.

Two years later, a police disciplinary court found Bamuzibire not guilty of brutality against Besigye and his supporters.

But the Court’s chairman Denis Odongpiny found Bamuzibire’s accomplices, including SSP Andrew Kaggwa, ASP Patrick Muhumuza and SP Moses Nanoka guilty of unlawful, excessive and unnecessary use of force and authority, and demoted them in rank.

Bamuzibire becomes the second senior police officer in Kampala to succumb to COVID-19. Barely a fortnight ago, Kira Road Division Police Commander (DPC) Matthias Turyasingura died of COVID-19.

There is an upsurge of COVID-19 cases in Uganda with the country’s cumulative cases rising to 56,949 after a further 1,438 new cases were confirmed from the samples tested on June 8.