It’s a Wednesday morning, the sunny golden rays strike as the President Hon. Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert convenes his entourage comprising of leaders and supporters at the Party headquarters in Makerere Kavule where he addresses a media briefing before hitting the road to Kamuli District.
He is spirited and donned in the revolutionary overall synonymous with the oppressed people’s revolutionary struggle. He speaks to the press and tasks the police not to interfere with the party’s mobilization tour as all the required procedures had been followed within the confines of the law.
At exactly 1pm, the President who left Kampala at 10am is at the new Nile bridge in Jinja where plumes of teargas are being fired to disperse his mammoth crowds. He is later allowed to proceed after mediations by the Leader of the Opposition Rt. Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi and the Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya who engage with the regime security officials shying away from cameras and wearing unnamed uniforms (bearing no name tags).
Earlier, the party advance team was arrested and detained at Kamuli Central Police Station alongside over 20 individuals picked from the rally venue. Our secretary for mobilization in charge of Eastern comrade Bigirwa Moses was picked from Kamuli Broadcasting Services radio station on allegations that he was mobilizing for the president during the talk show.
Moments later, the President successfully strains to Kamuli accompanied by throngs of supporters all the way through Jinja City to Kamuli. Teargas and multiple interruptions continue to manifest but the ugliest scenes occur at 5pm when police and military stage ambushes and start firing teargas and live bullets at the president and his delegation. People scatter for safety as police pelt more teargas canisters at the party media team. It is a scene of war. The price of challenging a repressive regime. Security officers threaten journalists not capture them on camera as they unleash terror. One yet to be identified person was reportedly killed by a police stray bullet in Kamuli during the aimless shootings.
It should be noted that we had notified the police in writing as required by the law. Therefore whatever the police and security agencies are doing to block our activities breaches the law and is being done with impunity.
Here is the pictorial of some of the scenes of our first day of the tour:
