KAMPALA, Uganda – A former top Ugandan police officer has been rearrested in connection with one of the country’s most notorious unsolved murders, reigniting debate over accountability and unresolved crimes within the security sector.
Nixon Agasirwe, a former Senior Superintendent of Police and once a prominent figure in Uganda’s elite crime intelligence units, was taken into custody this week in relation to the 2015 assassination of Joan Kagezi, the then-Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions. Kagezi was gunned down in front of her children in a Kampala suburb while handling high-profile terrorism and corruption cases, including prosecutions linked to the al-Shabaab terror network.
Agasirwe, who has long denied involvement, had previously been detained during broader investigations into police corruption and rights abuses. His re-arrest comes amid new evidence reportedly unearthed by a joint investigation team comprising Uganda Police and Military Intelligence officers.
Authorities have not disclosed specific details on what prompted the renewed charges, but Internal Affairs Minister Kahinda Otafiire stated that the government was “committed to revisiting cold cases that have denied families justice for years.”
The development has reverberated across Uganda’s legal and political landscape, with many seeing it as part of a wider reckoning over state-linked impunity and unresolved political killings.
“This isn’t just about Joan Kagezi. It’s about the deep, dangerous culture of silence and buried truths in Uganda’s justice system,” said a senior legal analyst who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
For years, Kagezi’s murder has remained a potent symbol of impunity, her name invoked at vigils, legal forums, and parliamentary debates. Despite initial pledges by President Yoweri Museveni to find the killers “at all costs,” the case had gone cold—until now.
Human rights advocates welcomed the re-arrest but cautioned against what they called Uganda’s “cycle of politically timed detentions,” calling for transparent prosecution rather than “theatrics.”
Agasirwe is expected to appear before a magistrate’s court later this week. Meanwhile, the Uganda Law Society urged the government to protect the integrity of the legal process and ensure the case does not become a political spectacle.
For many Ugandans, the revival of the Kagezi case may offer a glimmer of justice in a country where questions often outlive answers.
© All East Africa
