The son of former Museveni confidant and Local Government minister Jaberi Bidandi Ssali was shot five times on Saturday night. Muganda artiste Moses Ssali, aka Bebe Cool, narrowly escaped death when a member of a special NRM government militia called Special Police Constables pumped five bullets into him. The SPC member, Alfred Achikane, also shot a regular policeman who was with Ssali and two civilians in Bebe Cool’s group.
Shortly after Bebe Cool’s shooting the police released a report that the singer was shot in a scuffle with police. They did not explain why the regular policeman who was moving with Bebe Cool or why more than 10 rounds of bullets had been fired at unarmed people. Bebe Cool quickly refuted the Police claims. Then on Tuesday the Rwandan chief of the Uganda police, Kalyekezi Kayihura, went to visit Bebe Cool at Nsambya Hospital, where the musician was telling his vistors that he had reported to Kayihura days before that some unknown people were making phone threats on his life.
Ssali’s shooting comes exactly three months after the unexplained death of the son of another Muganda politician and former Museveni confidant, current vice president Gilbert Bukenya. The vice president’s son died in an suspicious road accident while travelling from a military training camp in Ssingo county. Brian Bukenya was a lawyer and, like Museveni’ s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, was going to attend the elite British military academy, Sandhurst. At Brian Bukenya’s funeral in Kakiri, Busiro county, president Museveni promised an investigation, saying: “If you analyse, you will find something wrong. Either the driver slept, or they were over speeding, or those two, plus not having seatbelts on.” The investiagtion has never started.
The SPC is a semi-trained extra legal militia that was created by Museveni to ease unemployment for those former army personnel and redundant youths with strong connections to the NRM. Members of the SPC are notorious for their frequent and liberal use of guns against civilians. For example in February 2009, SPC Paul Bayiga, stormed into Kaloke Christian High School in Nakaseke, Bulemeezi county, and shot two students who were leading a strike over poor food and other complaints.
During the first weak of October 2009, a Muganda taxi driver Fred Mugenyi from Kisimbanyiriri village Buddu county was shot dead by SPC Joachim Kugonza for trying to run away from traffic police who asked him to show his driving license. The police commander, Kayihura, personally visited the family, admitted that the shooting appeared to be a murder, apologized and compensated them with Shs 1M, 100kg of maize floor, 100kg of beans and 50kg of sugar.
