Unmasking the goons

We pose the question again: Who are the masked men wearing black who on Tuesday, April 12, beat up people using electric cable wires? This is a question, hopefully, that the investigation promised by Mr Abbas Byakagaba, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander, will answer.

Sunday Monitor was unable to confirm the details regarding the masked men by press time. But pictures taken at different times by a Monitor photojournalist indicate that the men at the centre of the controversy have been consistently working with the police in operations against former presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye.

While reacting to the uproar raised by the actions of the masked men on Tuesday, Mr Byakagaba sidestepped the question of whether the men were actually members of the Uganda Police Force or were just assigned the ignoble duties.

“I would like to disassociate the police from the actions of those individuals,” Mr Byakagaba said, “We don’t support such actions. We condemn people taking the law into their own hands.”

Earlier missions

On Tuesday, the day the masked men beat up the people following Dr Besigye’s vehicle, Dr Besigye had unusually cooperated with the police. He followed the police’s proposed route, avoiding the busier parts of town, as he made his way from his home in Kasangati to the Forum for Democratic Change headquarters in Najjanankumbi for the party’s Tuesday prayers.

On his way back from Najjanankumbi through the middle of town, however, hell broke loose when a few boda boda riders started following Dr Besigye’s vehicle. The excited boda boda cyclists aside, crowds gathered by the roadside, and on the road were other people who were minding their businesses.

The masked men struck. They sprayed pepper in the air ahead of the cyclists, blinding them and forcing them to break, often falling in a pile. Then the men would pounce with their electric cables.

Then Dr Besigye’s vehicle was parked on Kampala Road and he entered Crane Bank. The masked men became busier and intensified the beatings to prevent a crowd from forming around Dr Besigye’s vehicle.

It is not clear why the men wore masks on this occasion, because during earlier missions against Dr Besigye, they did not have masks on, although they sometimes covered their eyes behind dark shades.

A week before the infamous beatings, on April 5 when Dr Besigye was blocked and arrested at the Mulago roundabout on his first day out since his house arrest that lasted more than 40 days had been lifted was arrested, the same men were on duty.

On that day the men were lightly dressed in T-shirts and did not seem bothered about being identified. They still carried the dreaded electric cables, however, which they often fold and stuff in their pockets.

The registration numbers of their grey Noah vehicle, UAT 018C, were also untampered with, unlike on last Tuesday when they drove the same vehicle but without the registration plates.
Before that day, some of these men were again in action when, on February 15, when during the presidential election campaigns, Dr Besigye was blocked at Wandegeya.

One of them, as is shown in the picture, stood in front of a police barricade, relaxed as he made a telephone call. On that day, the plain-clothed men were more vicious than the police, and even the usually dreaded red-top military policemen. The plain-clothed men beat up demonstrators, even those who had already been arrested, in front of cameras.

At least one man was shot dead on that day and no one has ever been charged with the shooting.

New strategy

It appears to be the new strategy that whenever Dr Besigye, and sometimes Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago drive through town, they are followed by these plain-clothed men.

Dr Besigye says the men belong to the “Kifeesi” group, a gang of criminals in Kampala. The police deny this. The men, however, ensure that crowds do not form around Dr Besigye and sometimes Mr Lukwago.

On Thursday, for instance, Mr Lukwago drove under police watch from his home in Wakaliga to Court of Appeal in Nakasero with view of meeting with Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma.

All the way, he was trailed by a number of motorcyclists, including a few in police uniform, his supporters and those driving motorcycles without registration plates. These, in particular, rode in a defensive formation, trying to prevent others from getting closer to Mr Lukwago’s vehicle. They also carried cans of pepper spray.

Background
The practice of plain-clothed men clobbering demonstrators started on April 16, 2007, when stick-wielding men, who came to be known as the Kiboko squad, emerged from the Central Police Station in Kampala and descended on demonstrators.

The demonstrators were demanding the release of legislators Hussein Kyanjo and Beatrice Anywar, who had been detained over the demonstrations opposing the proposed giving away of part of Mabira Forest.

Then on Heroes Day, June 3, 2010, the stick-wielding thugs beat up whoever they came across around the Clock Tower as Forum for Democratic Change members, led by Dr Besigye, demonstrated against the Electoral Commission, which they wanted disbanded. Dr Besigye was among those beaten up.

There was uproar as a result, prompting Mr Kirunda Kivejinja, then minister of Internal Affairs, to attempt an explanation in Parliament.

“While the Police was attempting to disperse the group that had come from the Central Railway Station, another unidentified group armed with sticks appeared from nowhere. They began to disperse everybody and in the process many people were assaulted; I understand Dr Besigye is one of those who were assaulted,” said the minister.

See: PRESS GALLERY: Kiboko squad shows Uganda is headed the Kenya way

Mr Kivejinja promised an investigation, saying the culprits would “definitely” be punished once they were identified. A police investigation was carried out and a report compiled, but there is no communication to date about what happened to the culprits.