Police in Kampala have arrested two prison warders over allegations of receiving a bribe of shs350,000 to let a key suspect in theft of coffee escape from custody.
Juma Musisi, aka Young Mandela, aka Masappe last week escaped from the Nabweru Chief Magistrates court where he was charged with stealing coffee worth shs470 million from a truck .
The UG Bulletin has however learnt that the escape happened after the suspect’s wife paid a shs350,000 bribe to one of the prison warders.
“The wife approached the corporal with shs350,000. The corporal was to relay instruction to his colleagues,” a source at Kawempe Police Station where the matter is being investigated told this website.
It is reported that having received the money, a plan was hatched that the prison warders would relax a bit as the suspect asked to go to the toilet to ease himself.
“It was during this time that he escaped into thin air from court,” the source told this website.
According to another source, following the escape, Police arrested two Prison warders to help in the investigations and a search in the pockets of one of them led to recovery of shs350,000 which had earlier been paid to him as a bribe.
The duo has since been charged with aiding a suspect to escape from lawful custody and are soon appearing in courts of law.
Background
The suspect currently on the run has been identified by police as the kingpin in two coffee theft incidents.
Juma Musisi is accused of masterminding a robbery on November, 29,2024 where 21,600 kilograms of coffee beans valued at shs470 million being transported from Kasese to a depot in Nakawa for export was intercepted.
Consequently, the truck registration number UBE 355V that was carrying the coffee was diverted from its route and the coffee was later loaded onto other trucks , registration number plates UAY 827Q and UBG 973L and later transported it Luzira for sale.
However, the coffee was rejected and was collected by the purported seller Juma Musisi Alias Young Mandela alias Masape in two other vehicles, registration number UBD 151S and UAM 076N.
Police would later arrest Musisi, together with Kenneth Muswabi, 35, Medi Kalule, 42 and Martin Mugabi, 27.
They were charged with stealing goods in transit at the Nabweru Chief Magistrates Court from where Musisi escaped from custody.
Police said on Monday that Musisi was also wanted over a similar case of stealing coffee in transit in the Mukono court.
Cases of theft of coffee in transit have gone up in the past one year and this has been attributed to the higher prices that coffee beans currently fetch on both the local and global markets.
