Immigration Officials Investigated for Clearing US National with Illegal Military Equipment

By Fred Kiva

The police are investigating immigration and border security officials over how a US national accessed the country with illegal military equipment.

57year old Paul Mathias Rogers was arrested late last week after a police search at his home in Bwebajja, Mawani Zone on Entebbe Road, recovered a number of military equipment that included US army uniforms, 153 knives, boxes of ammunition, body armors among others.

“A GEF file 001/2018 has since been opened to ascertain circumstances surrounding his possession of these military equipment,” a police statement released shortly after his arrest indicated.

Speaking to journalists during a weekly press briefing on Monday, Police Spokesman Emilian Kayima said they are interested in ascertaining who cleared the suspect and how.

“The weapons passed somewhere, we want to know how they were cleared, who cleared them and if they were the only ones cleared,” Kayima said, adding that “For every cleared property, there should be documentation, so whoever cleared and did not follow procedure, will have to answer.”

The police spokesman said having such undeclared weapons points to so many things, adding that the suspect could be a contracted murderer, a terrorist or an arms dealer.

“All those are being looked at, Paul Matthias is being held at Nalufenya and being interrogated. Soon, he will be taken to court,” Kayima revealed.

Asked on how a US National will be prosecuted in Uganda, Kayima said,”We shall follow international law.” The United States requires her State Department, Embassies and Consulates abroad to provide assistance to US citizens incarcerated abroad.

Uganda's Aviation Police at Entebbe International Airport in March 2017 also retrieved and confiscated a Pistol, weapon cleaning equipment, 5 magazines and 100 rounds of ammunition from Rogers. Kayima said this old case file which had been shelved, will now be resurrected.

“This case file will be resurrected and we will compare with what we have now,” he said without clearly explaining grounds under which the earlier case file was shelved.