A Local Defense Unit officer is set to spend three years in jail for shooting his colleague dead. The rather lenient sentence was made by Uganda People’s Defense Forces-UPDF 1st division court-martial.
Asuman Juma Musuya was convicted by the eight-member court chaired by Col. Sam Mugenyi on his own guilty plea, for shooting to death Mamuli Atanansi after her accidentally released a bullet while cleaning his gun.
Prosecution led by Capt. Ketigan Mugisha told the military court at Kakiri barracks on Tuesday that while on duty at a Chinese factory together with Mamuli Atanansi in Namanve in Mukono district, Musuya cleaned his firearm without applying safety measures, which led to the death of his colleague.
Capt. Mugisha further explained that when Musuya reported for duty the day before the shooting, he didn’t check his gun yet he had left a bullet loaded in the chambers.
The 1st Division Spokesperson Maj. Bilal Yusuf Katamba when asked why a trained security person would forget to apply safety measures while holding a deadly weapon, explained that although it is not common for one to forget, the mistake sometimes happens.
Maj. Katamba also argued that overall there has been a lot of improvement in the discipline of LDUs compared to when they had just been deployed, though four other LDUs and three UPDF soldiers also appeared before the same court on charges of desertion, failure to protect war material and giving false information.
LDU officers have faced criticism from members of the public for shooting dead people and beating up others. Some of the victims are even found in their homes and beaten up, in the name of enforcing Presidential directives
