Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nixon Agasirwe, the former top police commander who is already under investigation for the 2015 assassination of Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Namazzi Kagezi, is now facing further probe over a second high-profile killing; that of Eritrean businessman Daniel Weldu Okba Michael in 2016.
Investigators have broadened their probe after fresh leads linked Agasirwe to the kidnap and gruesome murder of Weldu, a wealthy investor and proprietor of Amma Company Limited, who was abducted in Kampala and later killed across the Kenyan border in Busia.
According to investigators, Weldu was kidnapped from his Bugolobi office on October 27, 2016, by a group led by an ex-convict known as Kazahura. The operation was carried out with help from rogue elements within both the Uganda Police Force and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
After abduction, sources say Kazahura handed the businessman over to Nixon Agasirwe at his Kololo-based Special Operations Unit (SOU), where he was allegedly forced at gunpoint to sign documents authorizing the transfer of billions of shillings from his bank accounts.
A fraudulent court order, signed by a chief magistrate in Kampala, was used to effect the transfers.
Investigators believe city lawyers, bank employees, and security operatives all conspired in the plot, siphoning Weldu’s funds into accounts held by a law firm whose name is being withheld as inquiries into this high-profile case continue.
Weldu would then be transported at night through the Busia border in a convoy led by now-convicted UPDF Captain identified as Akeem Bumali Mangeni and other operatives from SOU. After crossing into Kenya, the victim was reportedly told to proceed to Eritrea, but during a struggle, he was shot dead and his body dumped in a thicket, where it was discovered in a decomposed state days later.
Weldu’s disappearance drew the attention of his family and the Eritrean diplomatic mission in Kampala. Dissatisfied with the initial police investigation, they petitioned President Yoweri Museveni, who instructed the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) to take over the case.
Using phone signal tracking, CMI operatives traced Weldu’s last known location to Agasirwe’s Kololo base. A subsequent search of SOU premises revealed a shirt identified by Weldu’s girlfriend as one he wore on the day of his abduction.
The discovery sent shockwaves through security circles. Then-IGP Gen. Kale Kayihura, a close ally of Agasirwe, quickly moved to dismantle the Nalufenya-based Joint Operations Center (which housed Agasirwe’s unit) and replaced it with the Flying Squad.
Gen Kayihura also deployed police commandos to secure the premises amid fears that evidence would be destroyed.
In retaliation, Agasirwe allegedly sent out a hit squad that assassinated two police officers guarding the site. Police later arrested ten operatives formerly attached to Nalufenya, some of whom reportedly confessed to the double murder and gave detailed statements about Weldu’s fate.
Nixon Agasirwe’s latest interrogation over the murder of Joan Kagezi appears to have reignited attention on the Weldu file. Kagezi was gunned down in 2015 while prosecuting high-profile terrorism cases.
