Besigye restraint ‘not NRM affair’
Police arrest Besigye (2ndR) at his home in Kasangati on Tuesday. PHOTO BY abubaker LUBOWA
What you need to know:
Security matter. The NRM says issues surrounding Besigye’s restrictions are about security not party politics.
Kampala
The ruling party yesterday sought to deflect attention from itself over the continued restrictions placed on opposition leader Kizza Besigye’s activities.
The National Resistance Movement’s reaction came a day after a government spokesperson said allowing the politician free access to town could help him bring down a “legitimately elected government through chaos.”
But yesterday, a spokesperson for the party insisted the matter is “a security question which should be answered by police” after Dr Besigye was, for the third day running, prevented from getting into town by the force.
Dr Besigye remained under preventive arrest at his home in Kasangati despite last year’s ruling by Kasangati Grade One Magistrate Jessica Chemery that it was unlawful for police to detain him in a place not gazetted as a detention centre. He could not be reached for the better part of the day as his known phones were on and off.
Dr Besigye had been released without charge late on Tuesday night after spending that day’s afternoon detained at Kira Division Police Station.
Ms Mary Karooro, the NRM spokesperson, yesterday contended that inquiries about Dr Besigye’s travel restrictions and detention are not about “party politics but security.”
Asked to respond about police’s action in respect to court position, Mr Patrick Onyango, the force’s spokesperson said: “The Constitution still gives us power to detect and prevent crime.”
Police is also said to have arrested five opposition politicians, including Rubaga North MP Moses Kasibante and the former deputy chairperson of the FDC electoral body, Mr Michael Kabaziguruka.
Mr Onyango first said investigations were underway to establish which charges to prefer against the politicians, before calling back to say they would be charged with “conspiracy to commit a felony.”
Opposition leaders, however, last evening, slammed the police’s actions as “arbitrary, unwarranted and illegal.”
Mr Wafula Oguttu, the FDC spokesperson, said the party will organise protests to counter police’s actions because other avenues for redress like the Judiciary have already pronounced themselves on the matter.
Democratic Party president Norbert Mao said the party was considering withdrawing from the Inter Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD), a platform funded by donors prior to the 2011 polls for opposition parties to engage the government, citing failure by State actors to adhere to ground rules.
“This is a form of planned and calculated political harassment intended to intimidate ordinary citizens by telling them what we [the police] can do to your leaders, we can also do it on you,” Mr Mao said.
Mr Omar Kalinge Nyago, a senior member of the Justice Party (Jeema), sympathised with DP’splans to pull out of the platform, saying they “are borne out of frustrations because the process has not discussed much”.
