Gen Kayihura’s Man Nixon Agasirwe Linked to Felix Kaweesi Murder

The sun had barely risen over Kampala when the shocking news rippled across the city. One suspect in the murder of former AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi had been arrested. Abby Kitagenda, a former police officer, had been arrested on Nasser Road, attempting to finalize paperwork to flee the country for asylum in Canada.

But what shook Uganda to its core wasn’t the arrest, it was what Kitagenda confessed shortly after, in the custody of the Intelligence services.

With trembling hands and visible panic, Kitagenda broke down, naming his former boss, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nixon Agasirwe, as the man who had ordered two of the most high-profile assassinations in Uganda’s recent history. The murder of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Andrew Felix Kaweesi and the assassination of Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Namazzi Kagezi.

        The Kagezi Murder

On the evening of March 30, 2015, Joan Kagezi was driving her children home in Kiwatule, a Kampala suburb. As she slowed down at a roadside fruit stall, two men on a boda boda (motorcycle) pulled up beside her car. One of them drew a pistol and shot her twice through the driver’s window, killing her instantly in front of her children.

Kagezi, who was then Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, had been prosecuting high-profile terrorism cases, including those involving suspects in the 2010 Kampala bombings linked to al-Shabaab. Her death was a stark warning that the tentacles of organized crime and political violence in Uganda reached deep.

Despite public outcry and international condemnation, the case went cold. That is, until the recent arrests and  confessions by the key suspects

The Assassination of AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi

On March 17, 2017, less than two years after Kagezi’s murder, another tragedy struck. AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi, his bodyguard Kenneth Erau, and driver Godfrey Wambewo were gunned down just outside Kaweesi’s home in Kulambiro, Kampala.

The attack was swift and professional. The killers, riding on motorbikes, intercepted Kaweesi’s vehicle shortly after it left his residence.

Following mass arrests by security and intelligence services including that of Kitagenda  at Nasser road, he admitted that he had personally waved down Kaweesi’s car, signaling to the assassins that the target was in position.

“They opened fire. It was brutal. But I was following orders,” he reportedly told interrogators.

Kitagenda’s Breaking Point

Arrested alongside his sister who was later released, Kitagenda faced mounting pressure.

Sources close to the investigation say he feared the brutal interrogation methods often used in national security facilities. He opted to confess, spilling the details he had carried for years.

He claimed that SSP Nixon Agasirwe was the mastermind. Nixon had handpicked a team of loyal operatives, including Minana and a Rwandese national, both of whom had also been then re-arrested after being dubiously released from prison. It was these same men who helped trail Kagezi and Kaweesi, according to Kitagenda.

Agasirwe’s name had already appeared in murky waters of national intelligence. Once a powerful figure in Uganda’s police, especially under former police chief Gen. Kale Kayihura, Nixon had risen fast and hard but fell just as dramatically after being implicated in illegal deportations of Rwandan nationals and operating a shadowy arrest-and-detain ring.

Despite being pinned on such serious and high profile murder cases, Agasirwe had not been charged for any of the crimes he had committed.

What Kitagenda described was more than isolated crimes. It was a system, a coordinated campaign of targeting, intimidation, and elimination, remove obstacle , silence dissent possibly for a national security and political crisis.

“We were told to arrest or kill anyone who posed a threat to the agenda,” Kitagenda admitted, according to sources.

Whether it was Kagezi’s pursuit of terrorist financiers or Kaweesi’s growing influence within the police, both had become liabilities in a complex network of security and political interests.

The Fall of Nixon Agasirwe

With key suspects’ confession, cases against Nixon Agasirwe have reignited. What had once been whispers in corridors of power is now formal accusation.

Agasirwe, long regarded as former IGP Kale Kayihura’s enforcer and right-hand man was accused by convicted assassin Daniel Kiseka Kiwanuka of orchestrating the hit on Kagezi.

Kiwanuka’s damning testimony led to Nixon’s recent arrest, almost a decade after the murder sent shockwaves through Kampala.

Agasirwe is set to be charged for the murders of both Kaweesi and Kagezi, alongside a litany of other offenses tied to illegal operations during his time in the police.

For years, justice for Joan Kagezi and Andrew Felix Kaweesi had seemed elusive. But now, with the collapse of silence and the willingness of suspects to speak the truth if only to save themselves, justice stands at a pivotal moment to be served at long last.