By Mulengera Reporters
Since April 2023, two renowned Kampala telecom engineers Charles Kasirye and Hamdan Mukwaya have been on trial over the theft of lithium batteries from different telecom masts and towers belonging to American Tower Corporation (ATC). ATC has over 5,000 such masts in the different parts of the country where they are used to facilitate 24-hour availability of telecom network services to millions of customers.
These are MTN and Airtel customers who pay to use telecom services to effect mobile money transactions, make phone calls, use ATMs to effect money transfers and internet to effect email, WhatsApp and other forms of online communications.
The two telecom engineers are being prosecuted for allegedly carrying out theft and vandalism acts targeting ATC towers and masts at the Bulaga in Wakiso site and another at Waina in Luuka district in Busoga. The lithium batteries are of the latest technology and are worth lots of money. Depending on its capacity, each of the lithium batteries costs between Shs15-Shs30m. Scattered at Ugandan hills across the country, the mast sites are metallic shelters comprising of telecom towers and other relevant infrastructure such as generators and lithium batteries. ATC is required to make sure telecom customers have fast network 24/7 and all this is enabled through having functional such batteries, in large numbers, at each of the mast sites.
This is why the tower masts must be up and running at all times. It’s the reason the generators are on site so that in case the UEDCL power is off, there is automatic connection to the generator. The generators are very expensive though and in cases where it either gets broken down or becomes untenable to use it because of costs (they use fuel), the system has to keep using lithium batteries, which are solar-powered and therefore environmental-friendly.
Any disruption on the site, resulting from power being off, generator and lithium batteries being unfunctional will result into the network being off-implying that customers won’t be able to use their ATMs, make phone calls or even email communications. Even mobile money agents won’t be able to effect money transfers-it’s that bad. And for ATC, this hurts their reputation being the sole provider of such service to MTN and Airtel which are Uganda’s leading telecom companies.
Besides reputation loss, ATC also has to be penalized by paying Shs750,000 for every hour that passes without customers in a given service area having telecom network. This (Shs750,000/=) is what MTN will charge ATC per hour, and Airtel too. Once the tower is disrupted, customers living or operating under the area served by that site will experience network disruptions and won’t be able to communicate or effect any transactions. UCC, being the regulator that is charged with consumer protection, will have to sanction and penalize both ATC and the telecom company.
This explains why the American government, through their embassy in Kampala, has been on the case of the Ugandan government directly protesting to the President over the ever-growing cases of telecom infrastructure vandalism orchestrated by rogue-minded rackets specializing in vandalising and stealing tower batteries and generators. The losses, resulting from such vandalism, have been skyrocketing and making Uganda untenable as a country in which such colossal sums of American money can safely be invested.
Having come under pressure from the US investors, the President has been demanding for results from the key government agencies charged with providing an enabling environment for investors like ATC. So significant is the American investment through ATC, the company as of last FY was number 3 on the list of biggest taxpayers to URA. It employs 300 Ugandans directly and another 2,000 indirectly through companies that are contracted to support and enable ATC work at the 5,000 mast sites across the country.
The President was recently so concerned; he declared vandalism to be synonymous with economic terrorism and directed the CDF Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba to work with other security agency heads to establish a Nakalema-like special unit whose work it’s going to be to ensure protection and safety of such vital telecom infrastructure.
Yet for some rogue-minded Ugandans, vandalizing and illicitly trading in such telecom infrastructure and equipment had become lucrative business. Well syndicated rackets had emerged and with strong presence in different parts of the country. And the two engineers-Charles Kasirye and Hamdan Mukwaya-are suspected to have been among the key actors enabling such rackets, while leveraging their knowledge as telecom engineers who have worked in the industry for more than 15 years.
DETAILING THEIR CASE:
Their arrest was triggered by the 23rd March 2023 incident that happened at ATC’s mast site at Bulaga hill along Mityana Road. On that day, a vehicle (Nissan Terrano UAQ 740U) pulled up at the site. Travelling in it were the two engineers with their alleged accomplice Letti Lawrence. On arrival, Peter Okello, a security guard on duty, warmly received them thinking these were part of the ATC engineering team which keeps moving to do routine maintenance at the ATC sites. They always travel in such vehicles and Okello doesn’t have to know all the ATC engineers because they are many different ones and each comes to check on a different aspect.
Letti, a stone-faced man, walked over to where Okello was (around the mast shelter) and pretended to be ill. He requested to be directed to a nearby health facility to which Okello opted to escort him since it was some 40 minutes distance away. The two engineers, having come to the site in the same vehicle, remained behind and Okello believed they were harmless. On his way back up the hill (all ATC masts are on hills), having left Letti resting at the clinic while claiming to still be having a lot of pain, Okello found the Nissan Terrano slopping down.
Some instinct told him something was wrong and he immediately got a small stick and scribbled the descending vehicle number plate on his left hand. His fears were confirmed when he reached the mast shelter only to see the enclosed mast and tower house (which is always under lock & key to the extent that even himself is never permitted entry) had been broken into. On looking deeper inside, he noticed the cabin in which 24 lithium batteries are always locked and kept had been breached. 18 batteries were gone.
He confirmed these were vandals, thieves and not the genuine ATC maintenance engineers he thought they were. He communicated to his superiors including Deo Kikomeko who heads security at ATC. On Tuesday this very week, Deo Kikomeko appeared before Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu (of the Makindye-based Standards & Utilities Court) to give evidence for the state whose case is being argued by prosecutors (a team of lawyers) from Uganda Communication Commission.
In his appearance, Kikomeko gave evidence aimed at helping the state to satisfactorily make its case leading to the conviction and sentencing of the two engineers and their co-accused Letti Lawrence, who has since become overwhelmed by the prosecution evidence and has indicated readiness to become a state witness against the two engineers. He is angry the two loaded engineers, with whom he has been locked up and remanded at Luzira prison since June 2023, have lately been alienating him.
For instance, they hired their own defence lawyer and left him out even when they are being prosecuted over the same case, same transaction. And it’s apparent they are the principals themselves, himself having played merely a supporting role. He used to be a security guard guarding masts for one of the telecom companies and that’s how he got to know the two as telecom engineers those days working for the same company.
On Tuesday as he testified, prosecution witness Deo Kikomeko gave evidence against the three of them. He narrated how his reporting of the vandalism and theft case to Bulaga Police, from where he was referred to Natete-based Police CCTV cameras centre, led to the electronic tracing and eventual impounding of the vehicle (Nissan Terrano UAQ 740 U) and thereby beginning on the two months’ manhunt which resulted into the apprehension of the two engineers.
Upon being stopped at Bweyogerere, the occupants of the vehicle on that day all fled and abandoned it in the middle of the road. One of these was a one Makanga who, upon being arrested, aided police and security teams from ATC to the location from where the two now fugitive engineers were harvested. A group of detectives led by a one Bakaki closely followed on Makanga’s leads, which led to the arrest of the trio-Letti, Kasirye and Mukwaya.
Makanga also linked investigators to a one Vincent, in whose Nakuwadde house (near Ssentema) 13 of the missing ATC batteries were recovered. It was a new house which hadn’t even been occupied as yet. The recovered batteries belonged to ATC and another victim company called Obuntu. The ATC ones were still engraved with the serial numbers that had been attached to hem.
The 13 batteries are now part of the exhibits state prosecutors from UCC intend to tender before court and use to build their case against the two telecom engineers. ATC, being the complainant in one of the many vandalism and lithium batteries theft cases the men are being held for, wants them convicted and jailed in relation to theft incidents that occurred at three of its telecom sites namely at Bulaga, Waina in Luuka district and Entebbe in Wakiso district.
In his evidence, Deo Kikomeko narrated to the Magistrate about efforts by unknown people who kept ringing ATC bosses, including himself, threatening to cause chaos for the company if the vehicle (Nissan Terrano) wasn’t released from police custody. That one persistent caller repeatedly introduced himself as a senior police officer attached to Parliament.
He would claim to be calling on behalf of his undisclosed brother who was claimed to be the owner of the vehicle. ATC bosses and senior police officers involved in the case refused to be intimidated and remained committed to holding on to the vehicle while hunting down the suspects.
Before quantifying to Court the extent of loss and disruption such vandalism activities and theft of batteries cause for ATC, the telecom companies, their customers and the country, Kikomeko explained why he is convinced that in the three men (Kasirye, Mukwaya & Letti) the state has the right suspects in its possession.
“Your Honour we have had peace since these men were arrested and remanded to Luzira. Since their apprehension, the vandalism and theft incidences targeting our batteries and other equipment at our mast sites have generally gone down in the whole country. It had become rampant but I’m here to truthfully tell court that not a single battery has been stolen since that time. And what all this shows, Your Honour, is the fact that this is the racket that had been behind the rampant vandalism and theft of our batteries,” asserted Kikomeko whose evidence to court was accepted as coherent and very helpful in corroborating the case against the accused persons.
In fact, after the court session, as he prepared to jump onto the prison’s bus back to Luzira, Letti was overheard confiding in fellow inmates that he was considering plea-bargaining given the amount of evidence the prosecution team has given in court so far.
Yet the state lawyers are far from getting done because the UCC prosecutors informed Court that very Tuesday of their intention to bring another 7 witnesses to give more evidence implicating the two engineers and Letti, their co-accused. Kamasanyu made it clear that court was prepared to take evidence from as many witnesses as the state wishes to bring.
Makanga, who was in the vehicle on the day it was intercepted and impounded at Bweyogerere, is one of those prosecution witnesses and his evidence, just like that of Letti, will be hard to overcome. It has also been disclosed to court by some of the state witnesses that this isn’t the first time the two engineers are getting arrested and charged with similar offences. That one time they were allegedly implicated in similar offences targeted Eaton towers on the Muyenga hill near Kansanga. All this is likely to impact on the Magistrate and naturally complicate things for the two engineers.
Prosecution hopes to use Makanga to corroborate some of the evidence Letti previously gave in court regarding where the stolen batteries were kept and how they are finally sold and disposed of to get money (tens of millions) in return. Makanga will also help to link the two engineers to the vehicle (Nissan Terrano UAQ 740U) even more. He potentially could help the state to link up even to its owner to whom the vehicle (now being kept in the court compound at Makindye as an exhibit) could even be returned as a reward for his openness and willingness to cooperate with the state.
Makanga will also the link between the two engineer bosses and the spare parts and scraps dealer in Kampala’s Kisenyi to whom the stolen ATC batteries would be so sold for such a long time. All this will help corroborate and make the prosecution case clearer and logically more believable by the Magistrate. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com). 
