Why Opposition candidates are getting private guards

If what happened in Ntungamo District last Sunday was a curtain-raiser to pre-election scenes that are building up, then a heavenly intervention is urgently called for.

For those who missed the 9pm TV bulletin on Sunday and repeats on the subsequent news; people dressed in NRM T-shirts and chanting NRM slogans and Mr Amama Mbabazi’s security were embroiled in a face-off, the most nasty so far since elections started seven weeks ago.

Police was at the scene, even before tempers shot through the roof and egos jerked. The episode, as a result, has been subject of debate across all forums with the public, analysts and observers expressing concern over what lies ahead as the country draws close to the February 18, 2016, polls.
The other argument, divisive still, is that the Sunday clashes were orchestrated by the private security detail that Mr Mbabazi moves around with—which police says is illegal. Mr Mbabazi, who carries The Democratic Alliance (TDA) flag, is one of the three top contenders in the race.

Four-time presidential runner Kizza Besigye maintains his private security detail as well but are usually in the background while President Museveni, the incumbent, seeking re-election for a fifth term, is guarded by the Special Forces Command (SFC), an elite group of the UPDF.

But in a period like this, it is the Electoral Commission (EC), the body charged with organising elections, which is mandated to provide security to all presidential candidates.
The other five candidates are protected by the police officers provided by EC.

Why private security
So why are the two main Opposition candidates moving around with private security?

The EC spokesperson, Jotham Taremwa, says there is no need for the candidates to have private security since the EC has provided security through Uganda police.

“…in line with the requirement of Section 22 of the Presidential Elections Act, we wrote to police and provided each presidential candidate with 12 police officers, both for their homes and personal security and the officers are fully facilitated by the taxpayers of this country,” says Taremwa.

On top of that, he adds, police at the request of EC has also provided a bodyguard, escort and residential police and urged candidates to report to them (EC) in case they have issues with the security provided.

“We also asked police to ensure that there is a secure environment for these candidates to conduct their campaigns,” he says.

“The idea of presidential candidates importing in private security is not allowed because the law clearly requires the commission to provide that security.”

Accident waiting to happen
But for Mbabazi, the Sunday events that transpired as he looked on were an explosion of something that had been building up.
From his first rally in Mukono District in early November, it was a common occurrence for Mbabazi to meet NRM supporters clad in yellow shirts and swinging placards bearing the incumbent’s face as he approached his campaign grounds.

Then in Masaka, a team of youth dressed in NRM party T-shirts went around town defacing his posters. The NRM leadership in the area also organised a feast and sent a truck with a public address system to rally all boda boda cyclists around town, asking them to disregard Mbabazi’s visit and instead go to the party organised by the ruling party.

Unverified claims went around that police was actually escorting unidentified people defacing Mbabazi’s posters.
Southern Regional Police spokesperson Nuwa Sserunjogi was quoted by this newspaper saying they were not aware it was armed officers escorting people removing the former’s prime ministers posters.

It is for that matter Josephine Mayanja-Nkangi, the communications director at Mr Mbabazi’s campaign desk, justifies their use of private security because “police have not helped the Go Forward candidate” in any way possible.

“We don’t need police protection because they are not of any use to us. It started in Mbale (during consultative meetings) and you saw what happened in Ntungamo, did you see them (police) doing anything (to protect Mr Mbabazi)?” Ms Nkangi asks.

Completely ruling out using police, she says Mbabazi will continue having his private security. “Even if they insist on separating our candidate from the current members of the private security, we will get more,” she says.

What got the public talking in the aftermath of the Ntungamo incident was not the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Gen Kale Kayihura, going to the scene, for he often does so, but it was the airlifting of 12 injured NRM supporters to Mbarara hospital.

While in Ntungamo, the IGP was quick to point out Mbabazi’s security detail as an illegal militia.
“Today, I am announcing it as IGP that the militia moving with Mbabazi will be arrested, it must be dismantled. It was not for those people, there would have been no incident I think,” he noted.

The IGP has consistently vowed to stop anyone with intentions of causing chaos before, during and after next year’s elections. In addition to the 40,000 Force, he has added crime preventers whose numbers are in tens of thousands.

The police boss’ announcement was seen to be effected on Friday with the arrest of Mr Christopher Aine, the head of Mr Mbabazi’s security team, who was reportedly arrested by the Police Flying Squad, although police denied arresting him.

Ms Nkangi, however, says the actions of police towards Mr Mbabazi’s security detail will not change their position of enlisting private security. She, however, declined to disclose the criteria they use for recruiting the private security.
“They are members of Go Forward and they volunteer to provide security and we let them do their thing. We don’t need to give them any training, they train themselves and we let them do their thing,” she says.

What about police?
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga, while appearing on NTV news on Thursday night, although first denying holding Mr Aine, admitted that he was wanted for questioning about the Jinja incident. He said police had secured summons from the Jinja Magistrate’s Court for Mr Aine.

Police is mandated to provide security of the candidates, Mr Enanga argued, saying private guards cannot be held accountable by law in case there is any problem.

“That is why the IGP came out strongly to warn those in charge to measure up to the task to avoid such incidents (Ntungamo clashes) because if anything happens to the candidates, it’s the police to be held accountable and not those Kanyamas [bodyguards],” said Mr Enanga.

Prof Aaron Mukwaya, a Makerere University political science don, says what happened to Ntungamo was a curtain raiser to more incidents, in what he called clan clashes, especially in western Uganda where the three main candidates hail.
“You have to look at the climate and environment in which the campaigns are taking place (presence of NRM supporters),” he said, adding that what happened in Ntungamo was a result of the environment.

“This is a third world country and it happens in all such countries. It is not a first world, anyone not happy with the security provided by (Dr Badru) Kiggundu (EC chairman) is free to have their people to secure them, you can chose your wife or anyone else,” says Prof Mukwaya.

“But those enlisted for security don’t even call them private security because they are not registered or recognised by an Act of Parliament. Those are just ‘Kanyamas’ (built up men)”
Crispy Kaheru of the Coordinator of Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), a broad coalition of civil society organisations on governance matters, says Mbabazi or Besigye enlisting private security is because they “cannot” and do not trust police, which has its image taunted as partisan and recent human rights reports have pointed fingers at for acting unjustly.

“For a candidate like Amama Mbabazi, he feels the police will potentially not guarantee his security without being compromised. Kizza Besigye also falls in the same category,” says Mr Kaheru.

But Mr Enanga, much as he agrees with Mr Kaheru the main Opposition candidates fear police could be spying on them through the assigned security detail, says the candidates are safer with police in charge.

“The police officers charged with guarding the presidential candidates are well trained and armed while the private security cannot guarantee the candidates’ security,” Mr Enanga says.

Mr Kaheru also argues that although the role of guaranteeing security of candidates and electorates lies with government, there is no law that bars candidates from having their private security.

Even in the most democratic countries, candidates are free to enlist private security for or to their detail. But Kaheru says private security should operate within the confines of the law.

“They’re not supposed to indulge in the broader security issues of the electoral terrain, that should be left to the police,” he says.

When the going gets tough
On what might have been done in Ntungamo, Mr Kaheru says members of Mr Mbabazi’s private security ought to have exercised restraint and restricted themselves from clashes with the public.

“If they were acting in self-defence, then it was warranted but if their actions were provocative or involved in beating, that is violence that must be condemned. It is not a good culture in an election,” he says.

But Mbabazi’s camp says as they, like on the previous occasions, were provoked.

But with police at the scene too, who could have intervened?
FDC spokesperson and Kyadondo East MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda says much as the Ntungamo incident was an eye opener, in the event that NRM supporters don’t behave, clashing is simply inevitable.

“I was extremely pleased because we are all discussing the need for peaceful elections. If I have a rally somewhere, why do you come (to provoke/interfere)?,” Mr Nganda notes.

“That provocation was to end like that; it was a matter of time,” he says. “I also have my personal security, police and other security agencies are partisan; and you can’t trust what they do because they are not accountable to you. They have divided loyalty that is why you must have backup security.”

Asked why and what kind of training is received by the private security teams, Mr Ssemujju says: “You are asking what I can’t tell. What you should know is their courage is their training, you confront us without any option there will be human reaction because our security is our supporter.”

Nonetheless, he re-echoed Opposition’s fears that the police do not guarantee their security. But with or without the Kanyamas, some observers point to the fact elections in Uganda have never been devoid of violent occurrences.

It is just a matter of time to the polling date and Ugandans will be hoping that the Ntungamo incident did not set a bad precedent for the 2016 poll.