200 arrested, 20 children lost during city carnival

KAMPALA. Police say they are holding up to 200 suspects arrested on various offences during the Kampala Capital City carnival on Sunday.
Mr Joseph Bakaleke, the commander at Kampala Central Police Station (CPS), said those in custody committed petty crimes including theft, fighting, and being public nuisance.

“We have two hundred and nineteen suspects in our cells at CPS. They were arrested for engaging in wallet snatching, pick-pocketing and turning into public nuisances,” Mr Bakaleke said.

The suspects, he said, will be screened so that the innocent ones can be released and those against whom there is preliminary incriminating evidence taken to court.

In addition, Mr Bakaleke said about twenty children separated from their parents are being kept at the police station, pending identification.

Meanwhile, Kampala Road, the main highway through the capital, was sealed off and up to 6, 000 uniformed and plain-cloth security personnel marshalled up to keep watch as thousands stream to the inner-city for the annual Kampala City Carnival.

The blare of music from gigantic speakers and swings by skaters tearing through milling crowds bounced to life in Uganda’s capital that is usually dreary and deserted on Sundays.

Humongous trucks, forklifts and tractors were used to block motorists from accessing Kampala Road, railway station and sections of Jinja Road. Vehicular traffic were diverted to Speke, Lule and other outlying roads, creating gridlocks in different parts of the city to the inconvenience of worshippers and other commuters.

Walk-through metal detectors manned by armed counter-terrorism police were being used to screen arriving merrymakers, and the security personnel frisk individuals when the alarm on the machine beeped.

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