Besigye beats police surveillance again as Lukwago is re-arrested
A police officer blocks Dr Besigye’s car as the opposition politician addresses supporters on Ben Kiwanuka Street in downtown Kampala yesterday. The vehicle was later towed to the Central Police Station where Dr Besigye was still detained by press time. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa.
What you need to know:
Public treated to another day of drama as the police arrest Dr Besigye and Mr Erias Lukwago on the same day KCCA elects three councillors to slots which have been vacant for three years .
Security operatives were last evening still trying to establish how former Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye beat the 24-hour surveillance at his home to emerge in the middle of Kampala’s Central Business District yesterday.
Witnesses told the Daily Monitor that Dr Besigye emerged from a shopping arcade on Ben Kiwanuka Street at around midday and immediately a stampede ensued as traders crowded around him, cheering.
He then boarded his car, which was parked outside the arcade and began waving his trademark V-sign to the crowds that kept surging. Noticing the commotion and deafening cheers, the police swung into action and spent close to 40 minutes to clear the crowds and tow Dr Besigye’s car to the Central Police Station (CPS). The police had to fire teargas to access Dr Besigye.
As Dr Besigye was being taken to CPS, embattled Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago was being hauled to an unknown destination after the police picked him from his home in Wakaliga, Rubaga Division, accusing him of planning to join Dr Besigye in the city centre.
By last evening, it was not clear where Mr Lukwago was being detained. Whereas some sources indicated that he was being held at Kira Road Police Station, others said he had been driven back to Nagalama Police Station in Mukono, where he was detained on Monday. The police were tight-lipped on the mayor’s whereabouts.
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Ibin Ssenkumbi, however, said both politicians were being held on charges of inciting violence.
“They are with us to explain why they were inciting people to violence,” he told Daily Monitor.
Mr Lukwago has been in the news after a tribunal named to investigate him found the mayor guilty of abuse of office, misconduct and incompetence, recommending his removal from office.
Hours after the report was released last Thursday, Mr Lukwago and Dr Besigye held a press conference where they announced that they would hold a series of rallies this week to “explain” the tribunal report to Kampala’s masses.
The initial rally slated for Monday at Nakivubo Settlement Primary School was blocked by the police who faulted the organisers for not giving them ample notice. Mr Lukwago was then arrested on Monday morning and driven to Nagalama in Mukono, where he was only freed later on Monday night.
But it was the emergence of Dr Besigye in central Kampala in the afternoon that puzzled security agents who had cordoned off his home in Kasangati, Wakiso District to prevent him from going to the city.
An aide to Dr Besigye told the Daily Monitor that the police had trailed the politician from Entebbe Airport on Monday night where he had arrived from a trip abroad. They reportedly followed him to his Kasangati home and cordoned it off.
Dr Besigye, however, beat the surveillance to turn up in the city centre, the second time he has pulled the feat. At the height of the walk-to-work protests, Dr Besigye also beat similar surveillance only to spring up in the city centre.
When he did so yesterday, officers at the nearby Ben Kiwanuka police post tried to control the crowds but failed, prompting them to call for reinforcement from Kampala Metropolitan Police headquarters.
A team led by Mr Micheal Mugabi, the Kampala Metropolitan Police South commander, which was helping resolve a stand-off between the owner of Yamaha Centre arcade and his tenants over a row on rent, then rushed to Ben Kiwanuka. They sprayed tear gas on Dr Besigye’s car as he addressed the crowd atop his car.
Other eight police vehicles, including an APC and two cannons, were sent to the scene, blocking the road near Arua Park and the Ben Kiwanuka junction.
“Tow the vehicle to the police,” ordered Mr Mugabi, but the patrol police car being used failed.
It was then that Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander Andrew Felix Kaweesi dressed in bullet proof jacket arrived and issued new orders. A stronger car was brought and Dr Besigye’s car was towed to CPS. At the station, Dr Besigye and his aides came out before they were quickly arrested and shoved into the cells.
By press time, they were still in detention.
