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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Special Investigations Unit-SIU is detaining ten suspects on allegations of vandalizing the telecom masts in various parts of the country.
Charles Twine, the Criminal Investigations Directorate-CID spokesperson has identified the suspects as Martha Namukasa aged 30, Annet Nakkazi aged 54, Clare Namatovu aged 25, Owen Katerega aged 36, and David Otim aged 25.
Others include Ibrahim Balaza, 30, Jorum Ssemanda, 20, Hussein Kato, 23, and two juveniles aged 14 and 16, whose identities police has withheld describing them as victims.
The suspects were picked-up in a joint security operation comprised of detectives from the Special Investigations Unit of Kireka and police officers from Kampala Metropolitan Police South areas of Katwe, Busabala and Kampala Metropolitan Police North, parts of Masanafu and Nakulabye on Wednesday evening.
Speaking to journalists at SIU Kireka offices, Twine said the suspects have been vandalizing telecommunication masts and adversely affecting networks and internet connections.
“We got intelligence that there is a cross-section of people that are deliberately targeting different telecommunication mast generators that generate power and vandalize them for the past months which called for an immediate action,” said Twine.
During the operation, vandalized assortments of generator spare parts were recovered in stores and others in different shops. Police experts have indicated that the recovered items have a value of UGX 400 million, but the reported stolen goods in various masts are worth about UGX 2 billion.
“The danger with vandalizing masts is that these telecommunication companies use masts for connections using the internet, and the unfortunate bit of this is that some hospitals use this internet,” Twine added.” “We have received some cases where doctors have got problems during their daily work operations over internet failures.
Twine explains that apart from hospitals, security CCTV cameras have also been challenged by continuous internet disconnections once masts are disabled. He explains that the ongoing investigations will be enlarged to include terrorism actions.
According to detectives, most of the parts stolen from the masts end up being sold in Kampala mostly in Kisenyi scrap and metal shops. The investigators says the operations are still ongoing and are expected to extend to various districts of Uganda.
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