FDC demands stronger firearm legislation

Kampala

Opposition Forum for Democratic Change party has asked government to strengthen laws governing the safe and proper use of firearms.

The comments came a day after Santos Makmot, a police bodyguard attached to the Kampala Capital City Authority physical planning director, Mr George Agaba, allegedly shot dead one person and injured several others in Luzira when an eviction exercise turned bloody on Sunday morning.

‘We demand that police institutes rules on the use of firearms. We also demand that security agencies immediately cease the deployment of plain-clothed officers for overt operations,” the party’s deputy secretary for publicity, Mr Toterebuka Bamwenda, said while addressing journalists yesterday at the party offices in Kampala.

Mr Bamwenda said that incidents like what happened on Sunday raise concern over the security of the public. “This is causing public anxiety as it points to a loss of control on the part of government. It also lends credence to reports that hit squads have been formed to liquidate opponents of the regime,” Mr Bamwenda added.

Magara case
Incidents of indiscriminate and random public shootings of civilians by security personnel were rare outside the war theatre of northern Uganda since President Museveni took power in 1986 until February 2006 when Lt. Ramathan Magara fired into a crowd that had converged on the Bulange in Mengo for opposition leader Kizza Besigye’s rally and killed two civilians. Magara was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2009.

akiyaga@ug.nationmedia.com