By Aggrey Baba
Following the recent charging of former Flying Squad commander SSP Nixon Agasirwe in the murder of State Attorney Joan Kagezi, security agencies have arrested another key suspect, signaling what appears to be a deepening investigation into the case that once rattled Uganda’s criminal justice system but failed to deliver accountability.
The latest suspect, Abdul Noor Ssemwogerere Ssemujju (Minana), was arrested last week from his home in Galilaya, Kayunga by a team of detectives.
His detention, eight years after he was first linked to the case, points to renewed efforts by state authorities to revisit files that had gathered dust, and to possibly expose a wider network of security operatives previously shielded by the system.
Minana was among the first suspects arrested in 2017 over the same case, but he was quietly released without being charged. Investigators now say his name has re-emerged prominently in witness statements and forensic reviews, particularly following the recent sworn testimony of convicted Daniel Kiwanuka Kisekka, who claims the operation was funded and coordinated by “Nixon” (whom prosecutors later identified as Agasirwe).
SSP Agasirwe, once a towering figure in the Special Operations Unit of the Uganda Police Force, was formally charged on June 16 at Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court with the murder of Joan Kagezi. Court did not allow him to take a plea, as the offence is capital in nature and can only be tried by the High Court, and he was remanded to Luzira Prison until July 8.
Security sources now suggest that Minana could have played a key supporting role in the plot, working under Agasirwe’s command at the time of the killing.
He reportedly operated a garage just a few metres from the scene of the crime in Kiwatule, where the senior prosecutor was shot dead on the evening of March 30, 2015, as she stopped to buy fruits on her way home.
Minana has previously faced allegations of operating in Uganda’s murky security underworld.
In addition to the Kagezi case, he was arrested in 2017 alongside Agasirwe for the illegal arrest and forced return of Rwandan asylum seeker Vincent Kalisa, an operation allegedly carried out using military weapons.
Though he was released after months in detention, the incident raised red flags about how rogue operations were being run by members of elite police units.
He was again re-arrested in 2019 in relation to cross-border activities involving the clandestine repatriation of fugitives, a case that further tainted his reputation but failed to yield a conviction.
Kagezi’s assassination, widely seen as an attack on the rule of law, shocked the country and drew condemnation from both local and international actors. At the time of her death, she was the lead prosecutor in Uganda’s most sensitive terrorism trials, including the July 2010 Kampala bombings.
For nearly a decade, the case stalled, with the victim’s family and rights groups demanding justice and decrying impunity. With the recent arrests of both Agasirwe and Minana, many now hope that the tide may be turning.
As more files are revisited and more suspects named, the long shadow of Kagezi’s murder continues to loom over the country’s justice and security sectors (now forced to reckon with their past). (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
