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It’s now a week since pastor Aloysious Bugingo of House of prayer ministries international survived an assassination attempt on his life in the areas of Namungoona when unknown assailants opened fire on his car raining bullets that killed his bodyguard Richard Muhumuza.
Now Simon Peter Kaswabuli who currently serves as Deputy RCC for Mbarara City besides the fact that he has for the last 13 years served as the head security at Pastor Aloysius Bugingo’s House of Prayer Ministries International (HPMI) Church and Salt FM premises respectively situated at Makerere Kikoni and Lungujja near Lubiri SS.
Kaswabuli, who initially was Bugingo’s friend in Kisenyi Kampala many years ago when the lattter used to hassle and survive as a hawker, has been in charge of all security and events organising errands at all Bugingo’s events including the large crusades he conducts at Canaan land, Kololo Ceremonial Grounds, Namboole stadium and in major upcountry towns.
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He is the man through whom Bugingo would originally engage security agencies like Police and UPDF to secure the deployment of hundreds of officers and men to oversee security at such large prayer gatherings. Those who know him say that Bugingo is one man who generously facilitates work once he trusts you to do a good job. He likes to delegate and adequately facilitate those he has entrusted with responsibility.
And that’s how Kaswabuli (a former youth leader in the Catholic Church hailing from Busoga and strategically got saved) has been picking hundreds of millions from Bugingo to facilitate such operations each time a large prayer event has been organised. The money is into billions because such has been Kaswabuli’s assignment under Pastor Bugingo for the last 13 years since he decamped from Pastor Sserwadda’s Church in Ndeeba to start his own initially at Bat Valley before moving to Canaan land.
Besides becoming exposed to njawulo, Kaswabuli has been earning very handsomely from Bugingo in his official capacity as head security. He has been earning Shs15m per month as a retainer for the less than 40 men he has been keeping deployed 24/7 to secure Bugingo’s and worshippers’ interests both at Canaan and Salt Media offices in Lungujja. Not very long ago, Kaswabuli became better organised by incorporating a Security Company called ECCOS Security Services Ltd whose services have since been terminated by Bugingo for reasons that will subsequently be elaborated in the latter part of this story.
The company was also permitted to have several pistols/firearms after Kaswabuli contacted the office of Minister of Internal Affairs seeking authorisation to acquire fire arms. This was presented as a request by HPMI Church leadership desiring to secure or protect their Pastors whereas not. On getting the fire arms, Kaswabuli controversially deployed the same under his company and never informed Bugingo that an application for the same had been lodged in the Church’s name.
Some few years ago, Kaswabuli (who has been having an office at Canaan for security coordination purposes) desired to get a government job ostensibly to grow his connections and CV. Leveraging on the fact that he was a well known errands boy for Bugingo he easily got himself on the list of new RDCs and was first deployed in Kasanda where he served as Deputy RDC before getting transferred.
Even after becoming RDC, he would rarely be at the government station upcountry because of the obviously very demanding schedule at the Bugingo premises which earned him a cool Shs15m per month (excluding the kickbacks earned off the big prayer events like Vision and Independence nights which draw hundreds of thousands of people at Canaan land every 31st December and 8th October on the day preceding national independence day celebrations).
Then very recently, Bugingo became uneasy after getting reports that Kaswabuli was working with his enemies (determined to use his estranged wife Teddy) to undermine his interests in some way. Bugingo summoned Kaswabuli and confronted him about this apparent betrayal.
In that encounter, Kaswabuli (who has amassed a lot of wealth off the Bugingo errands in the last 13 years) vigorously pushed back and fearlessly told off the Pastor who was subsequently advised to watch his back. There was a one Dennis Mukulu, previously serving as Church Administrator, who got fired (and replaced by a one Wasswa) after Bugingo realised he was another double agent undermining him from within and giving away very sensitive information about HPMI and Salt Media operations.
It turned out, that all along unknown to Bugingo, Mukulu had been very close to Kaswabuli to the extent that he was even a shareholder and co-owner in the security company. The duo had for sometime been hostile to the slain driver/bodyguard Corporal Richard Muhumuza imagining he was the one inciting Pastor Bugingo against them about inflated costs related to security and large prayer events’ management errands.
Then fast-forward: when Pastor Bugingo was shot at last Tuesday, Kaswabuli acted in a way that has circumstantially since caused security to pick interest in him. He for instance was the first person to arrive in Mulago where Bugingo was being treated for his gun shot wounds and at the mortuary where Muhumuza’s bullet-riddled body was being managed from.
Ironically, Kaswabuli wasn’t among the people Bugingo rang first and the investigating officers, before whom Bugingo has already recorded statements to aid ongoing investigations, are surprised as to how he got to know about the shooting. The other curious thing relates to the fact that Kaswabuli, leveraging on his connections and relationship with the Police leadership at both Wandegeya and Kawempe Police stations, stormed Wandegeya Police and was permitted to drive away Bugingo’s bullet-riddled vehicle and relocated it to Naguru-based Police headquarters.
This was without consultation with Bugingo or any of the family members or leaders at the Church. Investigators are curious to know why Kaswabuli, who isn’t a Police officer or investigator, had the guts to do all this even when it had already become clear to a lot of people at Canaan that his relationship with the popular Pastor had already become strained. The same Kaswabuli removed Bugingo’s belongings and delivered them to the man of God’s residence at Namayumba in Wakiso District without being instructed by anyone.
Gratefully, he has already twice been interogated by CMI investigators. He was on Sunday evening herded into CMI complex in Mbuya where he was grilled for much of the evening only to be released late in the night to go back home. But his phones were confiscated for further scrutiny. They are yet to be returned to him.
He was also quizzed about the five pistols that were secured with permission of the Internal Affairs Ministry ostensibly on behalf of the HPMI yet the Church leadership never authorised or instructed him to do so. The firearms were instead deployed to facilitate the work of Kaswabuli’s private security company-ECCOZ Security Services Ltd.
In a related development, Bugingo has since written to Kaswabuli announcing termination of all security services his company has been rendering. In the two page letter, copied to the IGP, CMI Chief and the President, Bugingo thanks Kaswabuli for the years he has served as head of security for his establishments but requests him to ease out on grounds he has been advised by both UPDF and Police to get him out to enable the UPDF take effective charge and control of the same at Canaan, Lungujja and the Pastor’s residences.
Mulengera News has established that Kaswabuli has this Monday evening been compelled by both UPDF and Uganda Police Office deployed at Canaan to receive the Bugingo termination letter after which he removed all his belongings (including firearms for his company) from the office premises Bugingo had allocated him at Canaan land.
He has since moved out totally with Bugingo making it clear he is prepared to pay off Kaswabuli for whatever might be pending regarding the security services his company has been offering. In the same letter, the Pastor makes it clear that Kaswabuli equally ceases to be head security at both the church and media organisation premises because his RDC job makes him too busy to be available and to have sufficient time to serve at both Canaan land and the Salt Media headquarters based in Lungujja.
Sources say that Kaswabuli would have resisted being fired and moving out of the Canaan security offices but was overwhelmed by the force with which the UPDF and Police officers demanded that he gets out. In fact, after removing his things and surrendering the office for occupation by the UPDF, Kaswabuli was once again herded back to CMI in Mbuya to undergo more interrogation and quizzing.
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