Four KCCA law enforcers arrested over vendor’s death
Mr Lukwago with some of the dead vendor's relatives. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa
KAMPALA- The acting Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) , Mr Richard Lule, on Saturday said the institution has arrested four of its officers over involvement in the death of a vendor who plunged and drowned in a city waste channel as she fled from them.
Mr Lule told journalists that the four officers are detained at the Jinja Road Police Station.
Kampala City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago on Saturday faulted KCCA law enforcers over the death of the woman who has been identified as Olivia Basemera, 38, a resident of Mengo in Kampala.
Eyewitnesses say, Basemera was vending handkerchiefs when she was confronted by KCCA officers and jumped into the Nakivubo Channel in a desperate attempt to escape.
Mr Lukwago told a press conference at his office at City Hall that his preliminary investigations indicate that the woman was being chased by the KCCA law enforcers. He called on KCCA to take responsibility for the tragic incident.
“I have personally been engaging several people who were at the scene and several accounts from eyewitnesses point to the reckless and criminal conduct of our officers. She is a single mother. I am very disturbed by the statement the technical wing issued. It should be ignored because the authority cannot condone brutality and violation of people’s rights. I cannot allow that,” Mr Lukwago said. “I have already communicated to the technical wing to device ways of taking care of the three children the diseased has left behind. The officers who were involved should be prosecuted for the crime they committed.”
KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju on Friday said the woman just saw the vehicle parked by Jinja Road and she ran to the channel where she died.
A the Lukwago press briefing were relatives of the deceased, including her father, brothers and uncles, who had also stormed the authority to discuss modalities of the burial.
Mr Patrick Kugonza, the father of the deceased, told journalist that the authority had given them Shs5 million to cater for burial arrangements.
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He insisted that KCCA was responsible for Basemera’s death and should therefore cater for her three children and grandmother, who she has been supporting.
“ My daughter was not a five year old person who could just see a vehicle and ran away. It is not the first time KCCA is manhandling people in Kampala. If we fail to reach consensus, we shall go to court and it will decide,” Mr Kugonza said.
Basemera’s remains are to be buried tomorrow at Ruhoko Parish, Nyantungo Sub-county in Kyenjojo District.
