In 2022 a new police investigaton into Sophia’s disappearance was launched in Uganda. It turned out to be quite underwhelming and a report, although promised to be given after three months, didn’t come until after 18 months. All this time the police kept us in the dark, despite us sharing the large amount of information we had gathered ourselves. Not to speak of the many questions that are there.
In the course of this investigation it was found that Sophia’s tourguide/driver, was not licensed to work as such until 2019. Naturally he was not the only one who worked without a license but normally that would be punished with a fine. However, the Prosecution decided to open a case against him, also blaming him for negligence.
We agree with that, as I have explained in two articles I wrote for Ugandan media, see next post on this website.
There have been three hearings in this case thus far and local media have been reporting on it. Also Dutch media, which can be found in the Dutch version of this post.
Articles in Ugandan media, and not only there, aren’t always accurate, bear this in mind when reading.
The same goes for Ugandan police statements. They usually read as if the police officer is taking dictation. No critical questioning, no probing, no corroborating evidence or statements. On top of that no audio or video backup so you never know what someone exactly said. Nor what the police officer did nót write down.
As a result it’s hard to tell how reliable witness statements are. Therefore I found it necessary to give more information and context. See the next post on this website.
This article appeared after the first hearing on June 11:
Online version:
After the second hearing on June 30:
Online version:
The third hearing, on July 7, was reported on by both large English language papers, the New Vision and the Daily Monitor.
I was on the witness stand myself.
Online version:
The article in the New Vision, with quite some inaccuracies, including the date of the next hearing, which is August 6.
Unfortunately at the moment there is no online version of this piece.