By Mulengera Reporters
Overwhelmed by the evidence the prosecution team has implicating him in the 12th May 2025 attack and vandalization of telecommunications equipment (masts & towers), belonging to American Tower Corporation (ATC), Quarish Yasiin Lubowa Ssegirinya had signaled readiness to enter a plea-bargain arrangement, plead guilty and anticipate lighter sentencing.
But while inside Luzira prison where he has been on remand, as it commonly happens, the same Ssegirinya was advised by fellow inmates not to do such a thing. Some of the inmates over time become “lawyers by apprenticeship” of some sort because, being repeat offenders, they get prosecuted several times over different offences-and in the process get to learn about difficulties involved in the prosecution making out their case beyond reasonable doubt. They learn about legal loopholes which can be leveraged to create doubt in the prosecution’s case, which quite often leads to an acquittal.
Some are repeat offenders who get convicted and sentenced but commit fresh crimes upon completing their jail term and getting released back to the community. There are also lawyers inside Luzira who interact and advise fellow inmates on how to play around and exploit loopholes in the law and make it hard for prosecution to secure a conviction.
Having interacted with such fellow inmates (as it commonly happens), Ssegirinya on Tuesday came to Court totally changed. And he didn’t sound like the same person who days earlier had signaled to the prosecution team about his readiness to plead guilty in return for lighter sentencing.
Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu, the Chief Magistrate at the Makindye-based Standards, Wildlife & Utilities Court, presided over the Tuesday session during which lawyers from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) demonstrated their readiness to pursue the case to its logical conclusion regardless of whether Ssegirinya pleads guilty or not.
THE VANDALISM CASE:
Working along with others still at large, Ssegirinya on the night of 12th May 2024 gained unauthorized access to the ATC telecommunications towers or masts site inside which he vandalized the generators before proceeding to extract several parts and other valuable equipment. In that very month, four other towers and telecom masts had been vandalized and rendered inoperative in that same Matuga neighborhood.
The crime scene where all this happened was Kigowa village (along Kampala-Gulu Highway). The exact location is found at Kigowa-Namakonkome site Matuga parish Kasangati Town Council in Wakiso district. The generator, whose parts were vandalized and extracted, is owned and operated by ATC.
Acting on behalf of the state of Uganda, the UCC lawyers submitted that Ssegirinya was criminally liable for willfully and unlawfully accessing and vandalizing ATC’s generator contrary to the relevant provisions of the Penal Code Act and the UCC Act. He committed both trespass and theft, both of which are offences under the Penal Code Act. That Ssegirinya and his accomplishes had clear intent to vandalize and steal the impugned generator parts from the mast site.
At some point, Ssegirinya (having realized there are even pictures and other pieces of evidence placing him at the crime scene) admitted being at the mast site that same night but incoherently claimed he had been delivered there, by people he didn’t disclose, against his will.
He claimed that he was just put inside a vehicle and involuntarily driven there by people he didn’t disclose. He also asserted that even when he was on site and is aware of the vandalization that was occasioned that night, he personally didn’t participate in the actual destruction or damaging of the generator. He attempted to accept being at the scene while at the same time denying the other elements required for prosecution to prove the offence of theft and criminal trespass.
The Magistrate got confused over what Ssegirinya intended to plead guilty to and what he intended to maintain his innocence about. He was asked to be clear and in the end, he indicated that he was pleading not guilty. Yet at the beginning of the session, an impression had been created that he was here to plead guilty to the charges.
The UCC lawyers, who came prepared for both scenarios, notified Court of readiness to proceed and prosecute their case to demonstrate Ssegirinya’s guilt. Dr. Abdul Salaam Waiswa, who heads Legal & Advisory Services at UCC, informed the Magistrate that they are ready to make their case and was allocated 23rd June as the day when the prosecution should produce and lead their 4-5 witnesses Court was assured are ready to pin Ssegirinya.
The UCC prosecutors are certain that through those witnesses, they will be able to adduce before court sufficient evidence to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt, to the detriment of Ssegirinya.
They have evidence to satisfy court that on the fateful night, Ssegirinya (who was with two others who fled and ran away as he himself got arrested at the crime scene) vandalized several generator parts which include air cleaner, temperature sensor, radiator, the radiator cap, the alternator, horse pipes, the injector pump, generator fan and the aviator pump besides committing theft of generator fuel.
All these vandalized generator parts were exhibited before Court in physical form at the Tuesday session. Glancing at all these (recovered) exhibits being displayed in Court caused Ssegirinya, who had already pleaded not guilty, to seem overwhelmed, worried and regretting why he had changed his plea from guilty to not guilty.
The young man, who is a resident of Kibuye, seemed even more worried when the state prosecutors from UCC announced readiness to assemble up to 4-5 witnesses to pin him at the next Court appearance, which has since been scheduled for 23rd June.
It was also submitted in Court that the vandalism and generator parts that were stolen, all combined, are valued at Shs8.5m. The complainant is ATC, a company which has over the years endured colossal loss of money as a result of targeted telecom equipment vandalism, which the prosecution maintains has lately been on the increase.
The wrongful acts Ssegirinya is alleged to have committed against the ATC masts site at Kigowa-Namakonkome-Matuga, upon conviction, attract a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison. But in his case, it goes to a maximum of 10 years because he is a repeat offender.
Dr. Waiswa separately explained to media reporters after the Tuesday Court session that the UCC Act provides that a repeat offender (who is shown to have committed similar vandalism acts before) is liable to getting a maximum imprisonment term of up to 10 years.
In his case, Ssegirinya is a repeat offender because in 2021 he committed the similar offence in the same Matuga neighborhood and was sentenced to serve a two-year jail term which he completed in May 2023. Yet upon walking to freedom, he resumed committing similar vandalism crimes, targeting ATC masts, until the night of 12th May this very year when his luck ran out and he got arrested to face the current charges.
Indeed, during the Tuesday court session, Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu recognized the fact that the accused person is someone who had previously appeared before her Utility court to defend himself against similar vandalism charges. Yet so sophisticated and hardened in his crime enterprise is Ssegirinya that he had attempted to conceal his identity by disclosing different names to the Police law enforcement officers who arrested him on the night of 12th May.
He had indicated to them that he is called Quarish Ssegirinya so that it’s not easily realized that this person is the same as Yasiin Lubowa who was previously convicted and sentenced to a jail term over similar vandalism charges. On Tuesday, Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu, at the instigation of the UCC lawyers, got the accused person to accept that he was one and same and that’s how all his aliases ended up being reflected or added on the amended charge sheet as to the identity of the accused person.
Outside Court, Dr. Abdul Salaam Waiswa explained why vandalism is a problem not only to UCC as the regulator and ATC, it’s licensee. He explained that the same slows down economic activities, progress and transformation of Uganda as a country.
He explained that when vital telecommunications infrastructure, such as telecom masts/towers get vandalized, ordinary Ugandans or telecom services users (whose consumer rights UCC is mandated to protect) ultimately suffer because the network gets disrupted and customers can’t make phone calls, can’t receive proper/clear TV signals or even effectively communicate via Apps like WhatsApp.
Dr. Abdul Salaam Waiswa also explained that internet connectivity gets disrupted and even online banking transactions can’t be effectively undertaken or made. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
