Former FDC president Dr Kizza Besigye falls on the roof of his vehicle after police used a water cannon to force him out. |
Kampala, UGANDA
Unspecified number of Forum for Democratic Change
(FDC) party supporters are in police custody following a scuffle with
detectives that lasted about four hours in Kireka in Kira Municipality Monday
morning.
Trouble started after security blocked a planned
FDC party conference at Mandela National Stadium in Namboole.
Heavily
armed police and military officers condoned off the stadium and turned away whoever
approached the facility.
The angered the FDC party members who decided to
march in a procession from Mandela national stadium to their party headquarters
in Najanankumbi were intercepted by police that tried to disperse their
procession on the busy Kampala-Jinja highway.
Some of the FDC party
supporters on foot and vehicles soldiered on attracting crowds, which prompted
police to use tear gas, water cannon and live bullets to disperse them.
This resulted into running
battles between police and the FDC party members whose numbers kept growing.
To contain the situation,
police tried to arrest the leaders of the procession including Kira
Municipality Member of Parliament; Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, who is also the FDC
party spokesperson, but he disappeared.
Dr Kizza Besigye, the former
FDC party president continued waving to the crowd from his vehicle.
Police blocked his car with
the help of about six police patrol trucks and later towed his car to Naggalama
Police Station.
However, some of the chains
used to tow Besigye’s car broke as the crowd cheered the four-time presidential
candidate who could come out of the open roof vehicle and wave to them.
Police use a water cannon to force former FDC president Dr Kizza Besigye out of his vehicle in Kiraka, Kampala on November 4, 2019. COURTESY PHOTOS |
At this point, used a water
cannon to force Besigye out of his car. They later managed to force him out of
the vehicle and bundled him into a police van, which sped off to Naggalama.
In a statement, police said on
Monday afternoon that FDC informed them about the intended celebration and they
wrote back to them advising that they should shift the venue but they ignored
their directive.
“FDC informed us about the
intended celebration and were wrote back to them advising that they should
shift the venue but they ignored our directive. Besigye defied police orders
and parked his vehicle in the middle of the road, blocking and inconveniencing
other road users. The car was towed away and he was taken to Naggalama Police
Station. At the moment no charges have been preferred against him but
investigators are still gathering evidence,” Kampala Metropolitan police
spokesperson Patrick Onyango said.
He also refuted reports a woman was shot dead by
police during the chaos.
"There's a photograph circulating on social
media purporting that a woman was shot and killed today in Kireka Trading
centre. This is not true. No death has been registered in this operation,"
Mr Onyango added in the statement.
As the 2021 electoral year nears, opposition
political parties and pressure groups are struggling to lay strategies to
confront Museveni.
However, police have repeatedly broken their
meetings citing failure to comply with the Public Order Management Act.
Recently, Besigye and a number of his supporters
launched a campaign dubbed ‘Tubalemese’, saying it will help the opposition to
achieve their goals.
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