By Mulengera Reporters
On Monday 22nd September, 39-year-old Abdul Makanga, a scrap dealer based in downtown Kampala’s Kalitunsi market, appeared and gave evidence before Makindye-based Utilities Court Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu.
He is one of the several witnesses the state prosecutors from UCC intend to rely upon to present their evidence against telecom engineers Charles Kasirye, Hamdan Mukwaya and their co-accused Leti Lawrance, a former security guard at Airtel. The three are facing vandalism and theft charges relating to the destruction and taking away of lithium batteries belonging to American Tower Corporation (ATC).
These batteries help power telecom masts/towers sites to remain operational 24/7 in case UEDCL power supply goes off or in case diesel generators prove costly and unviable. The lithium batteries are solar-powered and are very expensive assets to purchase whereby each one of them goes for over Shs25m. In their absence, the telecom network can go off-implying telecom customers can’t make phone calls, effect bank ATM transactions nor even communicate via emailing. The network will totally be off.
ATC is contracted by both MTN and Airtel to ensure 24/7 telecom network availability across the country, which is why the Corporation operates and maintains thousands of such sites across the country. The sites are vulnerable to vandalism by vandals and thieves who target to steal lithium batteries which they sell to scrap dealers who either sell them as spare parts or have them repurposed for some other use.
The trio of Leti, Kasirye and Mukwaya has been on remand for more than one year and ATC officials say that since their apprehension, vandalism and theft incidences on their tower sites have generally been in decline because their apprehension threw vandalism squads across the country in disarray.
State prosecutors from UCC are charged with prosecuting such cases, to serve as deterrent, on behalf of the GoU, which is obliged to ensure the investment climate is secure and acceptably safe for wealthy foreign investors like ATC.
On Monday, the state prosecutors brought before Court Abdul Makanda and 37-year-old Vicent Ssempala aka Kawooya, another spare parts and scraps dealer based on Equatorial Mall, to help corroborate the very compelling evidence their earlier witnesses had given.
Especially Makanga confirmed being the scrap buyer to whom Eng Charles Kasirye was allegedly selling the stolen ATC lithium batteries over a period of four years preceding his arrest. Makanga managed to positively identify Eng Kasirye who was one of the three masked men standing in the accused persons’ dock, right opposite of where he was testifying from. The Magistrate asked them to remove their face masks to enable Makanga identify Kasirye, which he promptly did having been his friend and customer for four years.
He revealed that Kasirye would bring lithium batteries for him to buy at his Kalitunsi workshop at least once in every two months. Makanga would pay Shs400,000 per battery. He demonstrated to court how he would quickly resale each battery at Shs800,000 to Vicent Ssempala, who was called into the court room to give his evidence immediately after Makanga had completed and left.
Makanga told Court he all along knew Kasirye as a telecom engineer working with Airtel Uganda because he would drive in cars with Airtel stickers and banners. However, each time he was bringing lithium batteries for him to buy at his Kalitunsi workshop, Kasirye would come/deliver them using a Terrano vehicle UAQ 740U.
This vehicle had been elaborately referred to by earlier prosecution witnesses. Kasirye’s co-accused Leti Lawrence, who has since indicated readiness to switch sides and testify for the state, previously referred to this same vehicle as the one Kasirye and Mukwaya would use to transport stolen telecom equipment including lithium batteries.
The two engineers are facing multiple criminal trials relating to vandalism and theft of telecom equipment in Entebbe, Luuka district in Busoga, Bulaga along Mityana Road from among other ATC sites. Earlier witnesses, whose evidence is corroborated by electronic evidence obtained through Police CCTV cameras footage, have all testified to court how that same vehicle (whose owner ought to come and testify too) is what Eng Kasirye would allegedly use in his vandalism and telecom equipment theft operations.
Earlier witnesses from Police and security narrated to Court how that vehicle was intercepted at Bweyogere, using technology tracking and interception. All this was on Monday corroborated when Abdul Mukwaya consistently maintained his claim (even in the face of cross examination) that it’s the same vehicle Eng Kasirye would use to deliver lithium batteries to his Kalitunsi workshop.
Abdul Makanga narrated to Court how his Namasuba home was raided by three men one morning in 2023 who took him away. He was for days detained at several Police stations including Wakiso and Jinja Road. The arrestors had Eng Kasirye in their vehicle and it was him who led them to his Namasuba home as someone to whom he would sell the stolen ATC batteries. “I found him seated in the vehicle which took us to where we were initially detained.”
It was while in that detention that Makanga got to know of Mukwaya and Leti. He was seeing them for the first time and Kasirye is the man he all along knew. He told court that while in detention, he got to learn of the fact that it was the same Kasirye who led security arrestors to Leti and Mukwaya with whom he continues to be remanded in Luzira.
Abdul Mukwaya elaborately demonstrated to Court the shape, size and appearance of the metallic batteries Kasirye used to sell to him. They each weigh 60kgs and had been labelled property of ATC. Moments later, corroborating witness Vicent Ssempala narrated to Court how he eventually led Police and detectives from UCC to his warehouse along Ssentema Road where 14 such ATC batteries were recovered.
Abdul Mukwaya confessed to Court he didn’t know what Kasirye was selling to him over the period of 4 years were actually stolen ATC batteries. He explained to Court how realizing that he was a truthful man who kept buying telecom batteries from Eng Kasirye innocently, without knowing that this was stolen property, caused the state prosecutors not to charge him with theft but to instead turn him into a state witness.
“I was consistently truthful and made it clear to them that I was innocent and prepared to go tell the Court what I know and what had exactly happened,” Abdul Mukwaya told Court making it clear that he had no personal vendetta against any of the accused persons. He also stated he hadn’t been incentivized, coerced or manipulated by anyone to come and give evidence against the accused persons.
To his credit, Abdul Mukwaya remained composed even throughout cross examination, which enabled him coherently answer all the questions from the accused persons’ lawyer. This composure was on clear display during both examination in chief and cross examination. He told demonstrated to Court that as a scraps dealer, he buys from different people who bring stuff to his workshop. And that he rarely bothers himself with where the stuff that is being sold to him is sourced from.
“But from this case, I have learnt to become more organized in that direction including issuing or demanding for receipts from those I buy from.” He also defended himself against defence counsel’s claims that he was a fake man because he couldn’t produce a trading license for his business. “Many of us in that Kalitunsi area don’t have trading licenses and all we do is to buy tea for those enforcement guys when they come. We find it cheaper operating that way,” he explained himself to Court, seemingly innocent.
He was also categorical that apart from Eng Charles Kasirye, there was no one else from whom he ever bought lithium batteries or anything else with the ATC labels. He revealed he buys other forms of scrap including locomotive batteries of the UBL and Chloride make. He has been in the business for more than 10 years and all his lithium batteries have always been sold to Vicent Ssempala. Mukwaya also consistently rejected defence lawyer’s claims that he had been conniving with rogue-minded insiders from ATC and Airtel to access and purchase lithium batteries.
It was from Vicent Ssempala that the lithium batteries, with the ATC label, were recovered from his premises at Buwaya and Ssentema Road. Ssempala told Court how he went into hiding in his village of Buwaya Kasanje on hearing that Abdul Mukwaya, his supplier and friend, had been arrested and jailed over the very ATC batteries he had sold to him prior. “I was later on advised by my friend Ndiwalana, who is a lawyer, that being on the run and keeping in hiding wouldn’t help. That’s how I handed over myself to the Wakiso Police.”
Ssempala told Court, he had so far dismantled two lithium batteries and went on to sell some of the things as spare parts including the small batteries therein. The 13 batteries that were still intact were being kept at his warehouse along Ssentema Road and others at his Buwaya Kasanje village home from where UCC and Police detectives recovered them.
At the end of the Monday evidence-giving session, the state prosecutors left the Makindye Court satisfied that their case had been strengthened because in some way, the two witnesses (namely Abdul Makanga and Vicent Ssempala) had managed to corroboratively place Kasirye and the two co-accused persons nearer to the crime scene.
Having opted to tell the truth the way they know it, the two state witnesses remained coherent and composed even during cross-examination. Defence counsel wasn’t successful in pushing them into contradicting their earlier oral evidence given during examination in chief. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com). 
