By Mulengera Reporters
Unprecedented impunity played out inside the Makindye Chief Magistrates Court on Tuesday when a 30-year-old Kisekka market mechanic (Quarish Ssegirinya alias Yasiin Lubowa), who was remanded after he was caught red-handed vandalising telecom masts, asked the Magistrate to order the complainant (i-Engineering Company Ltd’s Stanley Wabuge) to buy him lunch.
Immediately after cross-examining the complainant, the trial Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu casually demanded that the accused person or suspect and the complainant wave and smile at each other to demonstrate that there was nothing personal and that none had personal vendetta against the other.
Lubowa is an indigent litigant without legal representation and he is self-represented. He is his own lawyer and on Tuesday, he was given chance to cross-examine and contradict many of the things Wabuge had previously testified before Court in the preceding weeks.
I-Engineering, for which Wabuge serves as Security Manager, is the contracted provider of security and maintenance services for all mast sites and telecommunications towers owned by American Towers Corporation (ATC), which is the chief provider of communications tower services to Uganda’s leading telecom companies.
So, on all his appearances in the Makindye-based Standards, Utilities & Wildlife Court, Wabuge (who is the complainant in the criminal vandalism case) has been explaining to court how he and other members of the security team managed to catch Lubowa red-handed while vandalizing ATC’s telecom equipment located on Namakonkome hill in the Matuga neighbourhood along the Kampala-Gulu Highway. This was on the night of 11th May this very year at about 1am.
Wabuge’s narration to Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu is to the effect that on that day, Lubowa and others still at large was caught red-handed inside the shelter of that particular mast site’s 30KVA generator which he was busy vandalising and packing the relevant parts into a white sack which has since been exhibited in court.
Besides being the complainant, Wabuge is a star witness for Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) whose prosecutors (led by Dr. Abdul Salaam Waisswa) have for weeks been prosecuting this vandalism case which in May this very year was first registered at the Matuga Police Station as “CRB/294/2025.”
They want Lubowa to be sentenced to the maximum of 5 years because he is a repeat offender who has previously been convicted for committing similar vandalism acts. He was released from Luzira in May 2024 upon completion of his earlier jail sentence and committed the similar vandalism offence in the same Namakonkome-Matuga area in May 2025, barely a year later.
Mulengera News understands that since the arrest of Lubowa, who had been the ring-leader for the telecom equipment vandalism squad, criminal raids and vandalism cases targeting ATC masts have been on the decline in especially that Matuga neighbourhood.
This explains why prosecution is convinced they have the right suspect and they are certain that his eventual sentencing and confinement at Luzira for five years will be good news for the telecom industry because it will mean increased security and safety for ATC masts. Prosecution has several witnesses they intend to bring to court to produce incriminating evidence pinning Quarish Ssegirinya Lubowa Yasiin who, upon being arrested in May, initially tried to lie about his name.
It took one of his past vandalism victims’ visit to Jinja Road Police Station for the detectives there to establish the suspect’s real names.
Otherwise, he had deceived investigators and CID officers and all this deceit was deliberately aimed at concealing the fact that this was a repeat offender.
Being the experienced actor he is in his vandalism crime enterprise, Lubowa correctly knows that being a repeat offender is a bad thing because it’s a ground for the prosecution and trial magistrate to go for the maximum sentencing after his guilt has been established and he is convicted as charged.
