By Mulengera Reporters
The top executives at American Tower Corporation (ATC) Uganda will have reason to be eternally grateful to state prosecutors from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). This is after two young telecom engineers Amdan Mukwaya and Charles Kasirye, who ATC head of security Deo Kikomeko says had been responsible for rampant vandalism and theft of telecom equipment at various telecom tower sites across the country, getting convicted and sentenced to custodial sentences.
The two had previously worked with Airtel Uganda among other telecos. This enabled them to understand how lucrative specializing in vandalism and stealing of such telecom equipment at telecom masts could be. Kikomeko and other witnesses who gave evidence for prosecution indicated before the Makindye-based Utilities Court Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu that the duo was for long in control and full coordination of a squad that specialized in raiding telecom tower sites on the different hills of Uganda from where valuables like generator fuel and lithium batteries, belonging to ATC, would be stolen.
ATC owns and operates more than 5,000 such telecom tower sites across Uganda and these enable millions of telecom customers (for MTN, Airtel etc) to make/receive phone calls-and to also make WhatsApp and email communications. These telecom towers are the ones which ensure 24-hour availability of electricity to enable network reliability and endless communication among telecom users. The same enables internet connectivity and electronic transactions such as bank ATMs.
This means that ATC must have fuel 24/7 at each of these telecom towers and lithium batteries to ensure sustained communication services even at moments when UEDCL power supply or connection goes off. This is a seamless operation which explains why an ordinary telecom customer won’t even know the impact electricity supply disruptions can have onto his or her phone communication.
Expensively imported chiefly from European countries, lithium batteries help a lot as reliance on fuel generators would make the entire operation very expensive and the business unviable for investors like ATC to engage in. Reliance on lithium batteries is how ATC (on whose tower sites MTN and Airtel depend to be able to serve their customers) minimizes costs and be able to profitably render this service to its clients, the telecom companies.
So, as Kikomeko and other witnesses demonstrated to Court, the criminal acts of the two engineers and their accomplices still at large have greatly been crippling the operations of ATC. Indeed, as the telecom sector regulator, UCC has been under relentless pressure to help secure the operations of investors like ATC by cracking the whip real hard on vandals.
THE TWO ENGINEERS:
Amdan Mukwaya and Charles Kasirye are long term friends, having gotten to know each other as they worked at a top telecom company in Kampala. They have a combined experience and knowledge of the telecom sector spanning over 30 years. They have known each other and worked with other for now 15 years and still counting.
They had been at it for long until March 2023 when they were apprehended in an intelligence-led operation that was undertaken by UCC, which was on the verge of losing multi-trillion investors like ATC, whose top executives were beginning to make it clear that Uganda was becoming a difficult market to operate in.
The two engineers were processed and brought before Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu whose Makindye-based court specializes on prosecuting telecom sector-related offences among others. They were charged with vandalism and theft of telecom equipment (the lithium batteries, battery starters and hundreds of liters of fuel etc) from ATC’s telecom tower sites in different parts of the country.
One telecom site from which they stole was at a location called Waina in Luuka district and another in Entebbe near the market in Wakiso district.
Led by Dr. Abdul Salaam Waiswa who heads prosecution, legal services and litigation, UCC prosecutors adduced evidence showing that the two engineers were behind the alleged offences and acts of vandalism, targeting ATC equipment.
It was also demonstrated, to the satisfaction of Court, that the two engineers frequently hired and used Nissan Terrano/UAQ 740U (grey in color) to transport the stolen equipment each time they raided any of the ATC telecom towers. All this was corroborated by ATC footage that was obtained through collaboration with Uganda Police Force. Prosecution managed to recover the vehicle during one of the anti-vandalism operations and it was even exhibited in Court during trial.
The accused persons, through their able defense lawyer Malik Mbiro, had tried to rebut all that evidence by claiming they had no connection to the vehicle since it had become hard for prosecution to connect them to it. It was after all not registered in their names. Prosecution registered a major breakthrough when Kampala businessman Aggrey Akantorana turned up declaring he was the owner of the vehicle and registered his readiness to give evidence implicating the two telecom engineers.
He was ready to demonstrate to Court how this was his vehicle and that the two engineers had often been hiring it from him to facilitate their telecom equipment vandalism and theft operations in different parts of the country. Already, in an earlier vandalism/theft case targeting ATC’s telecom tower site at Bulaga near Bulenga along Mityana road, Lawrence Letti a co-accused had already given evidence against the two engineers. Letti’s evidence compelled them to plead guilty after which the Magistrate sentenced them.
The Bulaga incident over which they accepted guilt wasn’t in any way different from that of Waina and Entebbe. The ATC head security Deo Kikomeko too had already implicated them when he told Court that since the duo’s arrest and confinement, vandalism/theft cases had generally reduced, which signifies the fact that all along it was them conniving to occasion mischief.
Upon realizing that Mr. Aggrey Akantorana’s evidence was going to be hard to circumvent and rebut, defense lawyer Malik Mbiro anticipated danger and advised his clients to equally plead guilty on Entebbe and Waina as well. It was clear to him this was a bad case, as UCC prosecutors kept saying they are ready to pursue the case to the very end. Mbiro was opposed by some family members and spouses of the two engineers (they are proud polygamists each with not less than two wives) but he remained firm. And his point of view kept emerging the best one with passage of time.
In the end, the two engineers cracked and got an additional lawyer Kato through whom they contacted the UCC prosecutors. They made it clear they were tired of being driven from Luzira every Monday and Tuesday to the Makindye Court to defend themselves on a case they clearly saw had no chance of winning. Even lawyering-related expenses were beginning to take a toll on them instead of accepting guilt, get sentenced, serve a custodial sentence at conclusion of which they get to rejoin their families.
The plea bargain agreement was signed and introduced to the Magistrate by UCC’s Dr. Abdul Salaam Waiswa during the Court session of 12th January at Makindye. Saying she had never had a situation of having to convict and sentence the same people/person on three different cases within just one month, Kamasanyu congratulated the prosecutors over this breakthrough and proceeded to sentence them on the three counts. These included vandalizing and removing telecom equipment, theft and criminal trespass which are all offences created under the Communications Act and the Penal Code of Uganda.
She sentenced them to a custodial sentence of 30 months in total. The remand period (ranging from 29th May 2024 to 12th January 2026 when they were convicted-totaling to 18 months) was deducted and the remainder (which is 12 months) is what they are going to serve in jail. This simply means that January next year (2027) is when they will be coming out of prison to rejoin their families.
The Magistrate Kamasanyu urged them to reform and once again become useful citizens upon release from prison. She heard from the prosecution’s aggravating factors which included the colossal cost vandalism causes resulting into disruption of telecom services, the crime being on the rise lately and also the fact that the two engineers knowingly knew the impact their crimes could cause to the telecom sector and the economy as a whole. She was also focused on the fact that these were repeat offenders having previously been convicted over similar offences and in the same court.
On the mitigation factors’ side, the Magistrate considered the fact that these are young men (under 40) with families to look after, children to raise, wives to reunite with and other dependents to provide for. She also reflected on the fact that the two had become preachers of Islamic religion inside Luzira where many fellow inmates were being processed to reform so that they return to normal life when they are changed into better citizens upon completion of their respective sentences. Her Worship Kamasanyu wished them good health emphasizing that Judicial officers are also human and can have feelings of compassion towards others.
Her Worship Kamasanyu also granted the request of prosecution to have the Nissan Terrano released back to its owner Mr. Aggrey Akantorana who was commended for his willingness to support the fight against vandalism by giving evidence which would help to establish the guilt of the two telecom engineers beyond reasonable doubt.(For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
