Theft in Uganda: Is there a Right Way to Keep Valuables Safe?

Jacob Waiswa
Peace and Conflict Center
P.O. Box 7062,
Makerere University
Kampala-Uganda
jwaiswa@arts.mak.ac.ug

It is crazy situation to lose valuables. It takes a lot to buy them but a moment of time to lose them. The strong attachment to them makes it very difficult to forget let the event go. It takes a little lapse in concentration and swift execution of a plan to lose much-valued property.

Thanks to the military intervention in Uganda that over the years helped to scale down the much-feared armed robberies in the country. Most of the suspects in the early 1990s were interested in small cars and greatly made the life of car owners unstable. Shoot-on-sight eliminated them.

The life-taking armed robberies were then replaced by petty thefts –involving stealing of low value items, snatching, stealthily entering open residencies and stealing whatever is in sight, and breaking lockers, padlocks of apartments whose owners have been understood to be away to a day’s journey, club or party.

The just-seeking community behaved themselves by arresting and handing over thieves for further action. In 2000s, the Uganda police lost its face. For some reason, the thieves were soon released back into the community after community-engineered arrests.

One police woman said the police cells were so full that they never have appetite to add more ‘petty’ thieves in them. The case backlog was only increasing owing to the few judges and magistrates.

To cope with pressure of crimes everyday, the police department decentralized some responsibilities by asking local council chair persons to handle community crimes to the best of their knowledge. It was only when the case overwhelmed the village chief that they would refer it to the police. Along the way, however, an exchange of money takes place.

Firstly, the chairperson, who demands money from the victim to facilitate arrest of his or her tormentor, then the police –who asks the victim to meet costs of transport to the scene of crime and the location of the suspect.

It is rather the western justice system which refers to a well-known criminal suspect and soon released back into the community citing 'lack of evidence.' In such circumstances, every smart criminal who does everything he or she can to kill evidence will always be free.

The third scenario is the release of the suspect the next day after arrest and confirming evidence; something which the police too fail to explain and only look at each other. Therefore, when it became evident in 2000s that the police was promoting crime and working for criminals rather than crime prevention -by releasing the suspects back into the community to begin terrorizing the community from where they stopped, they (community) began administering justice themselves. The common system of administering justice is what today is now called mob justice.

Mob justices eliminate instantly the agents of crime rather than build and sustain it as the notion was when police stepped in, and there is an instant feeling that justice has been realized. Before finding oneself a victim of theft, it will be unthinkable to support mob justice.

But after learning a big lesson of the fact that the thief himself is never sympathetic, and only comes to deny fellow humans of their possession, or even to kill, the ex-victim will be the first to throw a stone and moral-boost mob justice.

Thieves have become too innovative to defeat the miserable consequences of mob justice. They have recently engaged women in their plans to enhance success of their mission. Because men steal to meet the comfort of women, fewer women than men will be found engaged in theft activities.

But, of course, at certain socially acceptable levels like boy-friend girl friend or marriage relationships, women do fake their men to obtain money from them. The men specially look for vulnerable women for opportunities to grab handbags for the quick-and-sell items like phones and jewellery. The brave ones make stealth moves to hand-pick an item from the pockets of their victim. Most heavily on demand items are phones and laptops.

There is a recent emergency of elite thieves in Uganda only comparable to the Nigerian email medium ones. They conduct sufficient researches about their victims-to-be and understand well their immediate social and economic worlds. They have got characters of not less than three, and make their would-be victim the fourth one.

Their first step is to build rapport by masquerading as though old schoolmates and exclaiming how long it had been without meeting. Once successful, they suggest an item at stake –usually very attractive and expensive enough to yield the fourth character a huge commission and, of course, his or her attention.

The proposer (character one) links his would-be victim to a foreign business man -the second character who happens to be Ugandan capable of forging a Mzungu (westerner) accent done by squeezing one’s nostrils and blocking them while making orders for a commodity to the satisfaction of the would be victim who now takes the position of 'salesman'.

Yet in the real sense he or she brokers the deal between the real sales man and the proposed buyer and on behalf of character one. Then the third character is one referred to as real sales man who is paid to provide the very expensive item and meet the proposer at a suggested location to share of the loot. The reward for the fourth character is called commission.

The proposer emphasizes the need for secrecy as the deal is run. It all begins by the attracted fourth person asks for the price and sample to be taken to the Mzungu. In response the provider of the item then asks for the deposit in cash that must be half the total money payable and electronically sent -ranging from 30 to 60 million.

And, when that is done, the game is finished. To any such attractive proposals in Uganda, it is important not to listen but rather escape the scene as much as possible. Giving attention to stranger’s suggestions to enter attractive business deals is a gateway to loss of the very little saving the entrant may have.

With the current reports hat robbers are back in town, what a combination it will make with already serious wave of mugging and conning! In Uganda, there is simply one rule: never trust a stranger, or consult at least 6 to 12 different people before accepting to negotiate any deal.