By Mulengera Reporters
On Monday, the Makindye Utilities Chief Magistrate Court’s Gladys Kamasanyu continued receiving evidence from UCC prosecutors aimed at proving 30-year-old Kisekka market mechanic Quarish Ssegirinya aka Yasiin Lubowa’s culpability in the vandalism acts that, on the night of 12th May 2025, were occasioned on the American Tower Corporation (ATC)’s telecom masts at Namakonkome hill near Matuga, along the Kampala-Gulu Highway.
The UCC prosecutors have been leading several witnesses all aimed at placing Quarish Lubowa at the crime scene and going on to establish his guilt. This Monday, it was the 40-year-old Joash Lubwama Robert, a Kyambogo-trained telecom engineer, taking to the witness stand to give evidence for prosecution.
Substantively, Lubwama serves as the Services Delivery Supervisor for ATC and the prosecution sought to use his evidence to demonstrate the extent to which vandalism actions negatively impact business for ATC and life/transactions for telecom customers whose calls can’t be made because of the network disruptions resulting from masts and towers being vandalized or interfered with.
The same witness’ evidence was also used to demonstrate the resultant breach of contract expenses ATC ends up incurring as a result of Airtel and MTN customers not being able to make or receive phone calls as a result of disruptions at any of the telecom towers it’s contracted to maintain.
Lubwama’s evidence demonstrated how even life can be lost as a result of emergency-afflicted community members (in that tower service area) not being able to make calls for rescue by way of calling in ambulance or fire brigade.
The witness graphically demonstrated how a home raided by robbers say at night would end up losing property and potentially life because of inability to call the Afandes at the nearest Police station. It could be a guard from a private security company failing to make a phone call to his or her headquarters for re-enforcements and back up deployment simply because the phone calls-making or even texting network is down as a result of vandalism acts.
Such vandalism acts leave the telecom tower (the mulongoti) without power supply simply because the lithium batteries or generator (powering it in absence of UEDCL power supply) has been vandalized and isn’t functional.
Being a telecom engineer who has done this same job for more than 15 years, Lubwama was able to explain, demonstrate and break down things so that everybody in the Court got to understand why vandalism was dangerous and why Lubowa, upon conviction, deserves to be given the maximum sentence which is 10 years.
Earlier prosecution witnesses, mainly from the security department of ATC (the complainant), had concentrated on demonstrating to Court how Quarish Lubowa is the man they saw, photographed and caught red-handed vandalizing their employer’s huge Jubaili Bros 20KBA generator at the Namakonkome site on the night of 12th May this very year.
And as a technical person, Lubwama was here to explain the technical aspects and to also illustrate the extent of loss for ATC, the telecom companies and the general public which fails to make transactions by way of placing phone calls, the moment the telecom masts (which enable the making & receiving of such phone calls) are vandalized and crippled.
Eng Lubwama enumerated some of the parts that were vandalized off the ATC generator at Namakonkome and what each one of them does to enable telecom companies’ customers to enjoy uninterrupted phone communications including phone calls, text and WhatsApp messaging.
The vandalized parts were listed to include the generator water pump, pulley generator radiator, generator radiator fun, the generator guard, the generator belt, the fuel injector pump, the fuel injector lines, the DC charging alternator, the oil dip stick, the lift pump, the engine horse pipes, the air cleaner holder and the fuel solenoid among others.
Earlier witnesses had ably and coherently demonstrated to Court how they had caught Lubowa Ssegirinya red-handed at the Namankonkome site with a white sack in which all these dismantled generator parts had been packed. They narrated to Court how he pleaded for mercy when one of the security guards cocked his gun, after the suspect tried to run away by scaling the wall, in a bid to evade arrest.
At some point during the Monday session, Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu turned to face Eng Lubwama who she praised for doing such a good job, tying the loose ends and explaining every small details and thereby enabling Court to fully appreciate the negative impact of the vandalism actions, which Quarish Lubowa Ssegirinya is alleged to have committed.
The witness also carried photos which were taken after the event to demonstrate the extent of damage that was caused at Namakonkome that night.
He also told the Court that as one of the relevant supervisors, he had noticed significant decline in the vandalism acts on that entire Matuga stretch and neighbouring areas since Quarish Lubowa was arrested and remanded at Luzira, which effectively put him out of circulation. The witness described this as an interesting coincidence, which he invited Court to interest itself in.
QUANTIFYING THE LOSS: From Eng Joash Robert Lubwama’s evidence, it emerged very clearly to Court that the vandalized generator, which only worked again after ATC invested Shs8.5m replacing the vandalized parts, costs Shs40m.
Court was also made to understand that the service level agreement between ATC and the telecom companies requires or obliges the former to pay Shs36m to each of the telecom companies (Airtel & MTN) as indemnity fees for each day the network connection in that service area is off because of such vandalism-induced network disruption.
ATC is penalized Shs750,000 per hour by each of the telecom giants for every 60 minutes the telecom network connection is off in that particular area as a result of such vandalism or any other cause of network disruptions.
Witness Lubwama coherently demonstrated to Court how his employer (ATC) had to pay so much money in such penalties as a result of the vandalism acts that were occasioned on the night of 12th May. He revealed that the previous night, similar vandalism (if not worse) had been occasioned onto the ATC towers at. an adjacent hill called Kiteredde.
Quarish Ssegirinya Lubowa, who has no lawyer and has therefore had to represent himself, tried to put up a fight in cross-examination but things didn’t go well as most of the hilarious questions he asked ended up being irrelevant and therefore incapable of diminishing his culpability in any way.
He ended up becoming cold-footed and was later on heard telling fellow inmates, as they prepared to board the prisons bus back to Luzira, that he was increasingly getting premonition that he is going to be convicted and sentenced to a long jail term given that he is a repeat offender who, before the 12th May incident, had just made 2 months after completing an earlier jail sentence.
He was overheard loudly telling fellow inmates that he is seriously considering changing his plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” and proceed to beg the Magistrate for lighter sentencing as opposed to wasting Court’s time and his own time defending himself against charges he clearly knows he can’t overcome, given the water tight case the UCC lawyers have so far laid in Court against him.
Quarish Lubowa Ssegirinya, who was also photographed that fateful night during the Namakonkome incident before being handed over to Matuga Police Station, was also over heard telling fellow inmates that he had become even more worried upon learning of the total monetary loss ATC incurred as a result of the vandalism events of 12th May 2025.
Gratefully, as Magistrate Kamasanyu has repeatedly been disclosing to Quarish and all the other suspects, the door for one to change their plea remains open any time the accused person feels prepared and ready to take advantage of that window and hope for lighter sentencing. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
