By Mulengera Reporters
Butambala MP and People Power Coordinator in Greater Mpigi Area, Muwanga Kivumbi has refuted the police account, corroborated by several eye witnesses that Micheal Alinda, who was popularly known as Ziggy Wyne, died in a motorcycle accident.
Muwanga claimed that the youthful man, whom friends simply referred to as Rasta because of the dreads he sported, died at the hands of state security agents after alleged torture. According to this narrative fronted by Ziggy Wyne’s family members and popularised by People Power Pressure group leader and Kyaddondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) – which emerged even before Ziggy Wyne’s death on Sunday 4th August at Mulago National Referral Hospital – the 28-year old man was abducted, tortured and dumped at the hospital gate, left to die.
“That means these murders are politically motivated, choreographed in such a way to deliver a particular message and it’s a build up to culminate into a disenfranchisement of people [ahead of the 2021 general election],” said Muwanga.
The outspoken Butambala MP has been active in opposition Democratic Party (DP) politics since the mid-1990s while still a student at Makerere University under the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD). He made the remarks on Thursday morning while appearing on NBS TV’s Morning Breeze Programme hosted by the dramatic and sometimes comical Samson Kasumba.
The hitherto little known youthful Ziggy Wyne, associated with Bobi Wine’s Fire Base Music Records/Studio based in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb, became prominent in death more than in life, largely due to the controversy surrounding his demise on Sunday 4th August at Mulago National Referral Hospital. Ziggy Wyne who went missing on 21st July was reportedly admitted at the government facility for a week before he succumbed to injuries on the head and the fingers.
It’s those injuries that have been at the centre of the clash over the cause of Ziggy Wyne’s death. Police earlier appeared to have agreed to investigate the circumstances of his alleged kidnap but later paraded some five eye witnesses who they said witnessed the motorcycle accident that led to the serious injuries that took the life of the rookie singer and businessman.
Hon. Muwanga accused the state of playing games with the lives of citizens, with the intention to sending a chilling message to People Power Group’s Principal Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) who has vowed to challenge President Yoweri Museveni for the country’s top job in the 2021 general election.
“First of all they want to play the psychology of Bobi Wine and say you are unsafe yourself, even your family, even the people around you,” he said.
Muwanga Kivumbi then went further and quoted President Museveni’s previous reservations about the integrity of some police officers, shortly after the murder of former police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi on 17th March 2017 in Kulambiro, Kampala.
“These murders are being stage-managed. The last time the President talked about the police force, he said it had [bad elements] ‘kawukumi.’ This means that these murders are politically motivated and choreographed in such a way that they send a message,” he said.
“It’s a build-up; they want to play the psychology of Bobi Wine that he is not safe. This is a government that has lost the trust of the people. If NBS TV believed what Fred Enanga [Police Spokesman] said was the cause of Ziggy Wyne’s death, why did you send a reporter to the accident scene [in Kyebando, Kampala] and speak to the people who may have witnessed the accident?”
However, the Butambala MP said People Power would apologise if it’s proved that Ziggy Wyne died as a result of injuries sustained in an accident and not injuries sustained due to torture at the hands of state security agents.
“We’re serious stakeholders in Uganda; we’re unlike [President] Museveni’s group who never had the capacity to wait [after the 1980 general elections] and instead went to the bush [to fight the Milton Obote] government,” said Muwanga.
This is the second time in five months that the police get caught up in controversy over the death of somebody. In March 2019, Police ended up in a communication mess over the death of Ronald Sebulime, accused of threatening the life of ICT State Minister ad Kayunga Woman MP Idah Erios Nantaba.
Shortly after the incident was reported in social media and mainstream media, police recanted a statement which appeared to have indicated that Sebulime was not killed by police officers yet he was handcuffed and shot dead by the officers who already had him in their custody.
