Assaulted journalist seeks Shs340 from Maj Gen Kyaligonza

Mr Deogratious Peter Otai, a journalist attached to the government-owned Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), who is accusing Rtd Maj Gen Matayo Kyaligonza and his guards of assaulting him, is seeking Shs340 million in compensation.

Rt Maj Gen Kyaligonza; his guards Cpl Peter Bushindiki and Pte John Robert Okurut and the attorney general, are the respondents in a suit that has been filed in the Civil Division of High Court.

Mr Otai through Kiiza and Mugisha Advocates, is seeking Shs200 million for psychological torture, stress, inhumane treatment, humiliation, among other violations of his rights.

He also wants Shs80 million as punitive damages and another Shs60 million for aggravated damages.

The incident stems from a February 24, 2019 incident in a Seeta in Mukono District, where Maj Gen Kyaligonza, who is Uganda’s ambassador to Burundi, allegedly joined his guards to assault a female traffic police officer.

The officer had stopped Maj Gen Kyaligonza’s driver from a making a U-turn in the middle of the busy Kampala-Mukono Road.  

Mr Otai explains that he had gone to withdraw money from the Centenary Bank Automatic Teller Machine in Seeta town.

He says in the suit that after making his transaction, he saw someone assaulting a traffic police officer whom he later leant was Ms Esther Namaganda.

According to Mr Otai, being a journalist, he instinctively went to sceneto find out what was happening, in order to file a  story.

He says that he found Cpl Bushindiki and Pte Okurut manhandling Ms Namaganda by the neck.

Mr Otai reportedly told the trio that what was happening couldn’t be tolerated in the country since it amounted to gender violence.

He says in his application that it is at this point that the guards dashed to their vehicle and picked bayonets to cut him.

 Mr Otai says that he took pictures of the incident prompting the military guards to attack him.  The application is supported by Mr Otai's affidavit and that of Mr Anold Mukose, the Secretary of Uganda Journalists Human Rights Association.    

"Currently I'm living in fear. When I go to sleep, I get nightmares of torture from security operatives", reads Otai's affidavit in part.

It adds: “Even when I hear something hitting the wall, the door creaking, dogs barking and windows shuttering and screeching. I am forced to sit awake on my bed almost the entire night engulfed in fear."

Mr Otai says he has received calls from relatives advising him to give up his quest for justice because they believe that, "military officers in Uganda are untouchable and not even Uganda's courts can hold them accountable." 

Court has summoned Maj Gen Kyaligonza, his guards and the attorney general to file their defence within two weeks before the matter is fixed for hearing.

Both Cpl Bushindiki and Pte Okurut were picked up by the military last month but have never been arraigned in court.

Maj Gen Kyaligonza recorded a statement at Police Headquarters in Kampala.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Justice Mike Chibita has since returned Maj Gen Kyaligonza’s case file to police citing lack of crucial information from witnesses.