MAKINDYE – Maj Gen Kasirye Ggwanga has said he will not obey police summons to answer charges of malicious damage after she shot and deflated tyres of the vehicle belonging to singer Catherine Kusasira.
The controversially retired army officer on Tuesday night in Makindye, a Kampala suburb, shot at the singer’s vehicle after her aides reportedly refused to lower the volume in the car.
While Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said detectives will summon him to record a statement, Maj Gen Gwanga said he will not appear at police.
“Why? I will not go there. I shot the tyre. You don’t mess up with a General,” he said on Wednesday.
“Kusasira and her drunkards wanted Shs300m from my son. They thought they were going to get the money. I tell you when I was called, I got out of the bed and reached there,” he added.
Witnesses told this website that Brig Ggwanga’s children had come to buy food at a takeaway joint in Makindye. At that moment, Kusasira’s car, which was being driven by her aides, arrived with loud music blaring inside.
It is said at this moment, the retired senior army officer’s children demanded that Kusasira’s aides reduce the volume. However, the latter refused, leading to a quarrel.
Shortly after, Brig Ggwanga is said to have arrived at the scene and also ordered Kusasira’s aide to reduce the music.
When they reportedly refused, insisting that he is not above the law, Gwanga is said to have picked a gun from his bodyguard and shot at the tyres of the vehicle, deflating them before driving off.
The retired soldier is not new to controversy. In 2017 Brig. Ggwanga set ablaze a tractor that was being used to grade a piece of land in Lubowa, Wakiso District, which he said belonged to his daughter.
He bragged after burning a grader he found at his daughter’s land and vowed to “deal ruthlessly with land grabbers.”
On August 1, 2013, Ggwanga, then a brigadier, stopped police from carrying out an eviction at his home in Makindye Division despite a court order. The then Kampala South Region Police Commander Michael Mugabi stormed Brig Ggwanga’s residence in Kizungu, directing that the retired army officer vacates the plot of land he is occupying for it belonged to former Kenyan president Mr Mwai Kibaki. Ggwanga refused and police retreated. They then made a second eviction attempt after the court issued another order. They again failed.
Both UPDF and police intervened. Brig. Ggwanga told the then Chief of Defence Forces Gen Katumba Wamala to stay off his property. Ggwanga is still occupying the same plot.
