Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /usr/www/users/urnnet/a/includes/functions.php on line 8386
Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /usr/www/users/urnnet/a/includes/functions.php on line 8386
Uncoordinated operations between the police resulted in the death
of 49 people during last week’s city protests.
Riots were sparked off in various parts of the country after the
arrest of National Unity Platform-NUP party Presidential Candidate Robert
Kyagulanyi.
Kyagulanyi was accused of holding massive campaign rallies at the expense of
Standard Operating Procedures –SOPs intended to curtail the spread of novel
Corona Virus Disease-COVID19. The Electoral Commission and ministry of health
have restricted gatherings to only 200 people.
Although the protests were in more than 20 districts, greater Kampala was the epicentre.
Besides the more than four dozens of people killed, more than 100
others were left nursing injuries.
A Superintendent of Police who preferred anonymity says that there were operational
mistakes that resulted from uncoordinated actions between National Command
Centre based at Naguru police headquarters and Kampala Metropolitan security
monitoring centre that sits at Kampala Central Police Station.
The police source says that the National Command Centre sat on Tuesday and
resolved that there was a need to put a stop on Kyagulanyi’s continued
violation of SOPs.
“When they agreed to stop Bobi Wine, a communication was sent to
Busoga –Bukedi Zonal commander to arrest him. But that decision
was not passed to KMP for the officers to be on alert,” the source said.
Another operations commander at one of the 18 divisions that make up Kampala metropolitan,
who is at the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police, said the protests
were a surprise to them.
“The fact is we had been receiving information about planned massive protests
in case Bobi Wine is arrested. But our intelligence indicated that was to
happen when his campaigns extended to greater Kampala. This was a surprise to
us,” the officer said.
The senior police officers said since everything was a surprise to them,
Kampala riots were handled by security apparatus that is designed for daily
security operations of the City but not for a riotous scenario.
“You can imagine that our new Field Force Unit –FFU probation
Constables whose role is to deal with simple crime incidents had to deal with a
riotous situation for close to two hours. Most of them were facing a riotous
situation for the first time,” another officer said.
Regarding shootings in Arcades, Plazas and at people standing on verandas,
operation commanders attributed most of the killings to plain-clothed armed
security operatives.
Although URN could not independently verify the claim, security
sources said the operatives are attached to crime intelligence. The operatives
that had been gathering intelligence on the allegedly planned demonstration
were hastily deployed under no command.
“These guys just come in Vans and conduct operations
without even alerting the area commander. Even this time they came dressed
casually but were openly armed. We saw them shooting but we could not stop them
since they are not under our command,” OC operations said.
URN asked Security Minister, Gen Elly Tumwine, why plain-clothed armed men were
deployed to query rioters, he said: “When you want to catch a thief sometimes
you behave like a thief. All those are tactics,” Gen Tumwine said.
//cue in “why were there…
Cue out “…are tactics,”//
URN understands that a team of police and military has been put in place to review
all videos captured by civilians and CCTV cameras on buildings showing armed
men in civilian wears, police and military personnel shooting at crowds
standing on verandas and those who were inside buildings.
A security source said 21 bodies were picked on streets of Kampala while 11
other bodies were picked inside buildings. After reviewing videos of day one
riots and security response, commanders of KMP security units among others UPDF
First Division commander, Maj Gen Samuel Kawagga, Military Police commander,
Col Keith Katungi and KMP Police commander, CP Moses Kafeero, resolved to suspend
the operations of the plain-clothed operatives.
