By Mulengera Reporters
To his credit, the editor of Daily Monitor profiled the lives of the more than 50 Ugandans who were gunned down (dead) during the “Free Kyagulanyi” riots of Wednesday & Thursday 18th & 19th November 2020. The bereaved narrated very painful experiences regarding the strange circumstances under which they lost their loved ones and each one of them indicated no government official had contacted them to deliver the state’s apology.
Neither did they hear anything about the offer to compensate each of the families as had been proclaimed by the President. There was also a state offer, proclaimed by junior health minister Joyce Moriku Kaducu, to offer medical assistance to those who got fatally wounded.
Yet through the campaigning period, the Nation Media Group platforms, especially NTV, have been airing stories of cash-strapped gun wound victims agonizing in hospitals while calling on the public to help them contribute to raise money to go for better treatment. Some have been referred to more advanced treatment abroad but are being prohibited by lack of money.
In all these, the voice of the Muevenist state has conspicuously been absent. Instead the country only heard from the vey unrepentant IGP Martin Okoth Ochola, whose men caused the maiming of such agonizing citizens, promising even more police brutality bizarrely claiming such beating and torture is actually for the good of the victims. His predecessor Gen Kale Kayihura (for all his weaknesses) was never that insensitive. It’s a comment that appalled many not only in Uganda but globally if what CNN’s Christian Amanpour told Gen Tibuhaburwa during his most recent interview is anything to go by.
It’s clearly that unregretted police brutality that government Spokesman Ofwono Opondo discussed to reporters (who asked him to comment about President’s Museveni poor showing in Buganda and Busoga sub regions) when he admitted such images demonized and alienated Gen Tibuhaburwa, his candidate, from many voters. Opondo says the absence of remorse in the faces of majority of the police commanders made many voters to realize that this state of affairs wasn’t synonymous with the Museveni they knew. Not anymore. But Opondo (whose views aren’t very different from what Gen Salim Saleh submitted on Capital Gang on the Saturday before polling) clarifies that this unregretted brutality wasn’t the state policy but an outcome of excessive actions of some overzealous individuals.
Having regretted the same, Opondo says such must not have happened and should never happen again. He is right to an extent because it’s very unlikely that any of the relatives, who buried a dear one having lost life due to the impugned actions of the Uganda Police Force, whose IGP is only promising more, would vote for Gen Tibuhaburwa or even have guts to lobby others to do the same.
However, we, at Mulengera News, believe that the brutal police actions actually strengthened Gen Tibuhaburwa as opposed to weakening him (as Opondo says) because we simply can’t think of any other way through which the very determined Kyagulanyi protestors could have been prevented from overrunning the Capital Kampala and subsequently topple Gen Tibuhaburwa’s government while seeking to replicate what happened in Tunisia, Egypt or even Bashir’s Sudan years earlier. (For comments on this story, call, text or whatsapp us on 0705579994, 0779411734, 0200900416 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).