The build up to Ntungamo clashes

NRM supporters flee from a confrontation with Mbabazi supporters in Ntungamo District on Sunday. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

KAMPALA- The clash between people dressed in NRM T-shirts and chanting NRM slogans and Mr Amama Mbabazi’s security in Ntungamo District was a climax of a situation that had been building up gradually since Mr Mbabazi started his campaigns.
Right from the first rally in Mukono District, there have been incidents of people dressed in NRM colours, carrying candidate Kaguta Museveni’s placards taking to the streets, and making processions with music bands, playing out NRM praise songs.
Each time it happened, Mr Mbabazi has addressed the press, threatened legal action and also called out the NRM party to stop what he terms as unnecessary provocation.
“Today was our day in Ntungamo. We should be let free to deliver our message to the best we can. But there was intimidation and an attempt to stop people from attending my rallies and as usual we had that provocation like what just happened,” he said after the Ntungamo melee.

How did it come to this?
The incident in Masaka District was the first. The night before Mbabazi arrived for his first campaign rally, a team of youth dressed in NRM party T-shirts went around town defacing his posters and plucking some off electricity poles around town.

Did police just kept watch?
During the day, the NRM party leadership organised a feast and sent a truck with loud public address system to rally all boda boda cyclists around town, asking them to disregard Amama’s visit and instead go enjoy a feast, courtesy of NRM.
The cyclists heard the calls. However, they first joined Amama, escorted him to his rally venue and then sped off for the NRM meal

Southern regional police spokesperson Nuwa Sserunjogi said the institution was not aware that its armed officers “were escorting the people that removed posters of presidential aspirant John Patrick Amama Mbabazi”.

In Mukono District, on Mbabazi’s campaign trail, there was a music band that marched around town playing NRM praise song.

Other NRM enthusiasts strategically stood at trading centres where Mr Mbabazi was scheduled to make stopovers. There they stood chanting NRM slogans and flashing the NRM thumbs-up sign at Mbabazi. Mild clashes ensued.

In Arua District, two cars, registration plates covered with papers reading “Vote Museveni”, drove around town, its occupants telling street children to deface Mr Mbabazi’s posters.

When Mr Mbabazi arrived in town, a group of supporters who welcomed him kept chanting in Lugbara: “Are you scared? No we are not scared.”

When Mr Mbabazi asked why they were saying that, they told him they had been threatened by State operatives not to attend his rally but they chose to defy. Since then, Mr Mbabazi has been using that slogan at every rally he has addressed, asking people not to fear State intimidation and embrace change.
In Iganga District, a group of NRM supporters, who lay in wait at CMS stage, was brutally dispersed when they attempted to join Mbabazi’s procession with their NRM placards.

Ahead of Mbabazi’s arrival in Hoima District, numerous announcements played on radio urging locals to keep away from his rallies and instead wait for the visit of “the beloved Museveni”.

The highlight of the disruption happened in Fort Portal, Kabarole when Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde landed Museveni’s campaign helicopter at Fort Portal Booma grounds at 1:30pm an hour ahead of Mbabazi’s scheduled rally at the same venue. He later on booked his team in the same hotel where Mr Mbabazi was scheduled to spend the night.

Mr Mbabazi was incensed. He ordered his lawyers to petition the Electoral Commission (EC) over the continued disruptions. The EC responded by condemning the activities and decreeing that supporters of candidates are not allowed to disrupt rivals’ rallies.

NRM secretary general Justine Lumumba said the helicopter was simply looking for space to land but added that the party was sorry for the incident.

The disruptions stopped for a while, until Mbabazi’s tour of Kigezi sub-region.

In Kabale District, there were claims of Amama’s supporters being blocked from accessing his rally venues.

About 80 people who were heading for his rally were briefly intercepted at Katuna border town as the police claimed that the lorry they were being transported in was overloaded. Kabale District police commander Dickens Bindeeba, said it was a simple issue which they quickly resolved.

The head of mobilisation for the Go Forward team, Ms Hope Mwesigye, condemned the actions, asking NRM to desist from further disrupting Mr Amama. “Ugandans know what is good for them. We expect government and the NRM operatives to behave themselves,” she said.

In Ntungamo District, the home of First Lady Janet Museveni, people in NRM T-shirts first assembled at Rwashameire, the venue of Amama’ first rally. They moved around the village distributing the party’s campaign material. In Rubare, a youth was arrested and survived being lynched for defacing Amama’s posters.

The climax would be in Ntungamo Town where, after a procession through town with a music band and distribution of NRM material around town, a group of people dressed in yellow, NRM party colours, went and lay in wait at the road running from Amama’s campaign venue into town.

When Mbabazi’s convoy arrived, those in yellow and armed with sticks started yelling at it singing NRM songs. However, it was throwing a stone onto Amama’s security vehicle that sparked the fight and at the end, those in yellow had been over-powered, beaten using the very sticks they had carried to the fight.