The Uganda Police and security agencies have been warned against suppressing rights of the citizens in the opposition leadership, the Investigator authoritatively report.
Former Uganda High Court Judge and now senior Judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Justice Julia Ssebutinde has described the continued heavy deployment of military personnel in the streets of Kampala as an infringement on the peace of Ugandans.
“When you move in the streets of Kampala all you see is a heavy deployment of military and police with guns guarding streets where un-armed civilians are present. What peace is this? You can’t force peace on people,” she said during the release of the Women’s incidental Report on elections in Kampala.
Ssebutinde, who is remembered for her famous unearthing of the “ROT” and ‘CORRUPTION’ in the Uganda Police Force during the popular ‘Julia Ssebutinde’ commission of Enquiry on the Uganda Police force said, “forcing peace on citizens with heavily armed military cannot survive for ever. Forced peace is only short lived.”
Commenting on the elections results, Ssebutinde said it is right for any loser to seek redress in the courts of law and that the law demands that this petition be filed in 10 days. “But if you arrest the person rejecting the results in his house, you don’t allow them to consult their lawyers or get evidence needed to support their case in court…, and then you are denying them their rights and this is wrong.”
She added; “The petitioners have 10 days but if you hold him in his house for two days, and as he tries to get evidence you again arrest him, you are suppressing him and denying him the 10 days entitled within the law,” she said.
She said such acts can be challenged in international courts and can be very disastrous to the nation. “It is like holding something in a pressurized container, you need to relieve some steam because once it explodes and it can be dangerous.” Ssebutinde urged government to allow the freedom of speech and the prevailing peace to prevail without forcing it onto the people.
IGP Kayihura says Besigye won’t be allowed out
Earlier while addressing the press at the Electoral Commission offices in Kampala, the Inspector General of Police Gen. Edward Kale Kayihura said they were implementing the Public Order Management Act (POMA).
Under the POMA, police must be notified of any tribe of public gathering and or processions in three days. “Besigye knows the Public Order Management Act but he didn’t inform us that he was coming to pick his results from the EC. He can as well send his agents to pick them and not necessarily himself,” said Kayihura.
Commenting on the arrests without charge, Kayihura said under the POMA, suspects can be engaged by the police. “When we take Besigye to Naggalama, it doesn’t mean that police has arrested him. He can be invited for a question as we engage him.” He said that intelligence had it that Besigye was planning to organise the youth to cause mayhem in the streets of Kampala, something he said, they would not tolerate.
He maintained that Besigye has hidden arrangement in the alleged picking of his results; “He is mobilising the youths from all-over the country. We are not fools, we know his plans to cause chaos in Kampala and we shall not allow this.”
Ingrid Turinawe Arrested
In the interim, the National Secretary for Mobilisation in the FDC Ingrid Turinawe has been arrested. She was arrested along Mukwano road after police trailed her from the FDC offices in Najjanankumbi where she was earlier in the day for the weekly FDC press briefing.
Police blocked the FDC meeting and also arrested eight data clerks who were feeding election results across the country from the declaration forms submitted by their agents. Police Spokesman Fred Enanga confirmed arrest of the 8 FDC data clerks. FDC says the whereabouts of Turinawe and Dr. Besigye are not yet known though.
However, the Police chief mouthpiece Fred Enanga told the media in Kampala that the FDC flag bearer and 2016 presidential runner up was being detained at Naggalama police station. “We have Dr. Kizza Besigye in Naggalama where we are holding him as we assess the situation.
Amama Mbabazi not under house Arrest
Meanwhile, Enanga denied reports that the Go- Forward Presidential former candidate John Patrick Amama Mbabazi was under house arrest but close monitoring. “We can’t take any person’s remarks lightly, we had intelligence that he (Amama) was up to something so we decided to include his residents among the police patrol routes as we monitor what is happening,” said Enanga.