MOST of the men implicated in the recent wave of car robberies are honest looking people who lure their victims by suggesting to them a lucrative business deal. They have businesses or white collar jobs and engage in car robbery for extra income.

Two of them, Kato and Wasswa Kayemba are twin brothers.

The stories of the gruesome murders of car owners by armed robbers and the rampant robberies of new vehicles have dominated the media headlines this week and left many Ugandans shocked.

The sudden arrest of a chain of suspected robbers has unearthed details about the suspects and the innocent Ugandans who they killed.

Information emerging from the security circles shows how the merciless thugs trapped their victims to death and later burnt their bodies with acid to kill evidence.

These brutal murders came to the limelight at the beginning of the month when Police impounded a suspected stolen car at the Uganda-Rwanda border.

The vehicle, an Ipsum was impounded after Police officers at Mirama Police Station found out that it had a fake number plate, UAL 330D. The number plate reportedly belonged to a Benz. As a result, Police arrested John Mugabe the occupant of the car. He was transferred to Jinja Road Police Station.

Police found that the Ipsum belonged to Hazaria Kafuluma, a special hire driver at Kajjansi stage, who had earlier been brutally murdered.

After the interrogation, Mugabe led Police to one Ssempebwa alias Robert Kazawula suspected to be the leader of the gang.

On arresting him, Ssempebwa confessed his involvement in several bloody robberies before leading Police to his base at Nakigalala-Kajjansi. Ssempebwa and his gang had been executing some of their deadly missions at the base.

At the base, Police discovered five other vehicles suspected to have been robbed. Ssempebwa confessed that his gang killed the owners before executing the robberies.

There was also a pit latrine at the base where the gang dumped the number plates cut from the robbed vehicles. Over 20 number plates were retrieved from the latrine.

Some of the latest murdered car owners include Nkata Mugaga of Namasuba and one Mubarak of Najjanankumbi.

Mugaga was killed and his body dumped at Ndejje. His relatives failed to identify the body because its face had been burnt with acid beyond recognition.

The other victim was Jean Claude Ndezi a businessman who the gang lured into a fake fuel deal before killing him and robbing his Ipsum UAM 576Z. The gang told him that they had smuggled fuel which he could buy at a very cheap price.

They told him that the fuel was in a store around Nkozi University and when he accepted the deal they went with him to see it. On the way they killed him and bought petrol which they used to burn his body.

Ssempebwa and his gang first befriended the victims before tricking them into fake missions and business deals, which later led them into the death traps.

Some of the survivors say that the gang called the victims to different destinations. Since Police arrested Ssempebwa, several bodies of the people killed in the robberies have been discovered. More robbed vehicles and more suspects have been got.

The recovered vehicles include Ipsums UAL 330D, UAL 760V, UAM 576Z, UAL 330D, a Super Custom UAM 524U and a Corona UAE 935P.

Most of the vehicles are, however, still at Kajjansi Police Station. Security operatives suspect the car owners who have not turned up to claim them were killed.

There is also suspicion among the security circles that the gang has been conniving with some officials of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to forge logbooks for robbed vehicles before selling them off again.

Police spokesperson for Kampala Metropolitan Ibbi Ssenkumbi said they are investigating URA over the suspicion.

The brutal murder of the car owners has shocked the public. What is even more shocking is discovering that the suspects killed their close friends during the robberies.

Ssempebwa has been known to be a security operative attached to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence.

For several years, he has been in possession of a pistol and an AK47 riffle and nobody was concerned about him because there was a perception that he legally possessed them.

He is believed to be the ring leader having joined the lucrative business in 2004. He told Police that he personally recruited several members of the gang into the ranks.

But to recruit you, your current job had to be connected to the car business. Most of those he recruited were money lenders, bankers and officials from URA.

One of the arrested suspects Mohamed Ssekatawa worked in a micro-finance. He reportedly linked the gang to the institution to get loans using the robbed cars as security.

But after securing the loans, the person who secured it on behalf of the gang would default and the bank would impound the car and sell it off. In that way, the gang would have lost nothing.

At his village, Ssempebwa had stopped residents on his village from traveling beyond 8:00pm allegedly for security reasons and whoever defied that would be punished.

Little did they know that the early night curfew he had imposed only worked for him and his gang to execute his deals When he was disowned by CMI after his arrest, everyone was shocked. The public however wondered how a person would possess illegal firearms even with the knowledge of security organs like the Police.

Ronald Kanyankore, one of the suspects who had been arrested told Police that he joined the gang in 2006. He revealed that he got obsessed with killing after seeing Ssempebwa hitting a victim to death.

Others who have been netted include Yusufu Katongole 37, a resident of Kasubi zone II who is a car dealer at Bukuli, Abdullah Ssenfuma 57, of Namungona Lubya, Francis Abiku 27, of Nansana-Nabweru, Edward Bagalagaza 31, of Bulenga and Charles Yigga of Kitebi.

Others are Bernard Muhangi, Daniel Mugume. Some other two suspects are still at large. They include the twin brothers Kato Kayemba and Waswa Kayemba suspected to have fled to Kenya.