By Kabuye Ronald
Two students in Kampala have been arrested for creating a social media video demonstrating how to hack and alter the operating systems of stolen mobile phones, police confirmed.
Guma Savior, an IT student at Uganda Institute of Information and Communication Technology, was apprehended along with his colleague, who filmed the video, according to SSP Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson.
The arrests occurred on Tuesday afternoon, during which police seized two mobile phones, a laptop, and a flash drive from the suspects. The students admitted that their primary motivation for making the video was to gain popularity on social media, particularly on TikTok.
“Police cannot take lightly what they stated in the video. We have seized smartphones and other electronics that we found in their possession for further forensic analysis. Investigations are ongoing,” Onyango stated.
He added, “We now have to find out whether the criminality part he alleges in the video is also true. That is why we are holding him and his colleague as we investigate.”
The students face multiple charges, including computer misuse and becoming a public nuisance, intended to serve as a deterrent to others contemplating similar actions.
The video, which went viral on Tuesday, shows Guma and his colleague boasting about their involvement in modifying stolen phones. They described how they receive, alter serial numbers, hack into cloud accounts, and replace parts of stolen phones in Kampala.
“Did they steal your mobile phone? …Did motorcycle riders snatch it? They bring them to me every morning,” Guma bragged, explaining his role in changing the operating systems of smartphones. He also claimed to possess software capable of cracking codes and deleting serial numbers.
The video caught the attention of Jim Spire Ssentongo, a well-known social media activist, who posted it online. This prompted the police to launch a manhunt, culminating in the students’ arrest by Tuesday afternoon. They are currently being held at Central Police Station, Kampala.
