Commissioner of Police (CP) Wilfred Okello Makmot who died on plane like Gen Aronda had reportedly been assigned a new task to investigate guns that were reportedly found in the house of former IGP Gen Kale Kayihura.
CP Makmot died on July 8, 2018 at Dubai Airport Lounge while on transit in United Arab Emirates, was the director of National Focal Point in Small Arms and Light Weapons at the Ministry of Internal
Affairs. His body was last week flown back Uganda and buried in his country home in Oyam District.
At the time of his death, CP Makmot whom relatives said had never had any heart related problem was returning from a two weeks’ UN Review conference on the illicit trade on small arms and light weapons which had taken place at United Nations headquarters in New York.
Sources have intimated to us that upon his return to Uganda, Makmot was supposed to lead a team of others to investigate the guns that had been reportedly found inside Gen Kayihura’s house in Muyenga.
In June 13, Gen Kayihura was arrested by top security operatives who picked him up from his country farm in Lyantonde District and three days later, investigators led Gen Kayihura to his home in Muyenga in Kampala, where a search was conducted for hours in the presence of the embattled former police chief. Apparently, during the house search several sophisticated technology equipment and weapons were found in his house.
It is these weapons that CP Makmot who is a specialist in that field was supposed to inspect and ascertain if the guns had been used in any illicit criminal activities in the country especially the top murders of muslim clerics, Joan Kagezi, AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi, Muhammad Kiggundu and others.
It is suspected that there was no foul play in the death of CP Makmot, just like Gen Aronda was died at the time when he was spearheading the multimillion National Identity Card project.
The department of National Focal Point on small arms and light weapons that Makmot was heading is responsible for ensuring peaceful environments free of armed violence and a safe and peaceful society free from armed violence. Its mission is to coordinate efforts to prevent, combat and eradicate the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons, through comprehensive, integrated and coordinated
approaches.
Makmot had therefore been charged with the task to conduct and facilitate research on issues pertaining small arms and light weapons in all its aspects and above all to facilitate the exchange
and dissemination of information.
Makmot was also supposed to lead the process of registering and marking all guns in circulation as per the recent presidential directive and he was supposed to report directly the President. It should be remembered that while addressing Parliament on matters regarding security of the country on June 20, President Museveni listed a 10-point strategy that among them include fingerprinting all guns in circulation that government is set to embark on to fight criminality in the country.
The President told Parliament that he has not directly been involved in fighting of crime until the killing of Maj Muhammed Kiggundu and AIGP Andrew Felix Kawessi which provoked him into action.
“There should be no undetected crime after taking the following measures; fingerprinting all guns in Uganda. All guns must be fingerprinted to capture fingerprints of any user. That means if any legal gun was used for criminality, we shall know whose gun was used and who the perpetrator is,” Museveni said.
Whereas foul play is highly suspected, the Director Police Health Services, Dr. Moses Byaruhanga who led a team of pathologists to examine the late Makmot’s body said that the senior officer died of
lung failure.
“We assembled a team to do the autopsy and I wish to inform you that there was no foul play that we found on the body but significantly we found that he got a blood clot in the right lung that blocked the
vessels and he couldn’t breathe, that’s why he collapsed and died, so this is a natural death,” he said on Friday.
He add,”There was nothing much the team in Dubai would do but was basically precipitated by long flight from Florida across the ocean which took close to 19 hours seated and as you may be aware prolonged immobility precipitates blood clots.”
About Makmot
In 2007 he served as Commander Anti-Stock Theft Unit in Karamoja and Teso Sub-regions. He is commended for his role in the disarmament process and fighting rampant cattle thefts in the Karamoja Sub-region.
The deceased also worked in the Directorate of Logistics and Engineering and Directorate of Operations in the Uganda Police Force. Prior in 2004, he was the police commander, Luweero District and later Katwe Police Station. He later served as regional police commander (RPC) for West Nile region in 2006.
