The afternoon heat hung over Nateete when a routine moment turned into a breakthrough.
Months after a brazen bag-snatching at the busy traffic lights, a 17-year-old victim spotted something chillingly familiar, a vehicle that had once been part of the crime slipping through the same streets as if nothing had happened.
Back in January 2026, the teenager had been targeted in a swift, coordinated attack.
The thieves struck from a moving car, a Golf bearing the registration UAQ 950P, vanishing into traffic before anyone could react.
The case had gone cold, the suspects blending back into the city’s chaos.
But on April 8th, at around 4:00pm, chance intervened.
The victim, sharp-eyed and certain, recognized the vehicle and immediately alerted police.
Officers moved quickly, intercepting the car and apprehending one of its occupants.
What they found during the search added a new and unsettling layer to the case.
The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Hassan Kuteeka of Musigula Zone in Rubaga Division, was carrying an identification card stamped with the markings of the Criminal Investigations Department.
The card, labeled CID 006, bore his name and the official police logo, an apparent attempt to pass as law enforcement.
It wasn’t just theft anymore. It was deception.
Authorities now believe Kuteeka had been impersonating a police officer, a tactic that may have helped him evade suspicion or even facilitate crimes.
The fake badge, discovered in his possession, became a key piece of evidence linking him not only to the earlier robbery but to a broader act of personation.
As investigators piece together the full extent of his activities, one question lingers: how many others might have trusted the badge?
For now, Kuteeka remains in custody at Nateete, the illusion of authority stripped away, replaced by the weight of a growing case against him.
Meanwhile, police continue their search for other suspects connected to the January attack, determined to bring the entire operation into the light.
