When you meet a group of three or four detectives sadly sharing with one another, appearing to read one another’s WhatsApp phone chats, chances are high that the talk is about Joshua Owori.
When CID Director Tom Magambo introduced regular transfer policy, it was a sigh of relief to most of the CID officers, more so who had never gotten a chance to serve in other parts of the country, including Kampala.
A big percentage of CID officers was happy. It was however a short lived joy since it later turned into a tool to financially drain CIDs.
The Police Investigations department is now struggling with one officer who started a rare habit of sending WhatsApp messages and calls soliciting for money to transfer them to lucrative CID positions, or money for maintaining them in the different postings.
One message to different people, either he wanted a loan which he would cover soon as his salary dropped in or maybe he was in a fix that required instant cash which would be; maybe he was in a fix that instant cash which would be refunded the next week.
These messages came in weekly, same massage to different officers. Whenever an officer would feel overwhelmed, he would share with a colleague only to find that he/she is going through a similar scenario.
Most of these messages go to officers within Kampala and some to those in the vicinity and across the country.
When the Director (AIGP Tom Magambo) introduced induction courses, it was obvious that after the course officers would be transferred to another station, “surprisingly within two weeks at the course, many would be aware of their next destination. Someone would tell you that am going to Bwebajja to meet Owori, then he would comeback assured of the next station and it would come to pass. Shortly after, many adopted to this, induction courses became deployment strategies.” A senior CID officer in the Kampala Metropolitan area told this website.
In a rare scenario, four officers found out that they had paid for the same station, only one was successful, he would later tell them how the director had asked him for four names and ended up picking one, no refund was made.
Having strategically positioned himself as a kingpin on CID transfers, every time he sends a text soliciting for money you have no option but to pay or else you find yourself on the next message. This website has obtained copies of messages allegedly from Owori soliciting for money from 17 CID officers who now sit on Tableside tales and backbite the Senior Superitendant of Police.
Whereas we thought that this was going on within the senior ranks, it has lately come to our attention that junior ranks are terribly affected. A CID officer in Zombo, told this website that he has suffered the wrath of Owori, with weekly deliberations “while threatening me with transfers, what do i do now?” He asked.
Another source who has been in the force for almost 16 years, served this directorate for 13 years says, he is yet to meet an officer who has internally damaged the directorate’s reputation like Owori.
“We all know that we have a non tribalistic director (AIGP Tom Magambo) who doesn’t tolerate corruption whatsoever but we equally know that he has not grown with us, we know that he is a gentleman who listens, but we know most likely he won’t be with us forever.” A source said.
The Police source however also indicated that Magambo has a rare approach to administration, with open criticism, “anyone would approach him over this unfortunate character for the love of the directorate we have given our all our worry is always our tomorrow.”
The serious allegation against Joshua Owori makes CID a bad haven for the surbodinate officers. He however has no mention of a conviction, “I’ll refrain from commenting further,” said an officer who asked not to be named.
By press time on Saturday morning, Owori’s telephone contact couldn’t go through. Close confidants told this website that he usually goes out of Kampala for private business.
