Manhunt on for thugs who broke into church, destroyed priest's robes and stole Ksh.633K

Ugandan police are investigating an incident where an unknown number of thugs broke into a church and destroyed the priest’s robes before making away with Ush.15 million (Ksh.633,007) and other property of unknown value.

According to police reports, the theft occurred last week at Our Lady of Assumption Mwereerwe Catholic Parish in Kyambizzi village, Gombe sub-county.

The Parish Priest Rev. Fr. James Matovu, while filing the report at Wakiso District, said, no doors or windows were broken during the incident, and sacristans only found out about the theft during a routine mass preparation.

He said there might have been an insider, or that the thugs might have used master keys for the operation.

“The way these thieves broke into the church is questionable because there were no broken doors or windows. We believe that maybe there was connivance and one of our workers intentionally left the door open,” Fr. Matovu said, as quoted by The Monitor publication.

“Alternatively, thieves might have accessed the church keys or had master keys because even the askari (guard) was around but never detected their presence.”

The priest said the thieves first managed to open the control box for the public address system and stole an amplifier, four microphones and one microphone receiver before proceeding to break a safe box and stealing donations for Radio Maria.

 “The box had not been opened for one full year and they forced it open and took away an unknown amount of money,” he said.

The thieves also got away with the offertory money made during the Christmas season and vandalised a Japan-made keyboard and the priest’s robes.

“They went back to the Sacristy and cut into threads some of the vestments for the priests and left them on the floor,” the priest noted.

Following the report filed at Gombe Police Station, detectives responded and arrived on the ground with sniffer dogs, which led them to one of the local bars about 300 metres away.

A quick search by the officers and information from the bar owner revealed that four men had entered the bar the previous night, and are now believed to be prime suspects in the theft.

The bar owner was arrested with another person but was later released on bond.

Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigire said the DNA and fingerprints of the suspects were captured and a probe is underway.

The church is now looking for Ush.19 million (Ksh.801,808) to buy new machines and install CCTV cameras around the church.