Police block FDC thanksgiving prayers

On November 26, 2018, police blockaded some roads where FDC members were expected to pass to the thanks giving venue. COURTESY PHOTO

What you need to know:

One Edson Nasasira alias Kakuru, 22, a taxi tout at Nabugabo stage and resident of Kafunjo cell, Eastern division in Rukungiri Municipality was in October last year shot dead during a rally but police insisted he was hit by a stone.

Police in Rukungiri District in western Uganda have blocked the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party members from holding thanksgiving prayers for their deceased supporters.
“Instead of providing badly needed security and policing services to Ugandans, Uganda police is heavily deployed in various parts of Rukungiri today to stop an innocent, peaceful thanksgiving function! Road to my home blockaded. May be planning to massacre people as happened in Kasese!” former party president, Dr Kizza Besigye tweeted on Monday.

On Sunday, police in Kigezi region said they had written to FDC leaders advising them to call off the event.
Addressing journalists in Rukungiri, District Police Commander Moses Nanoka, who was flanked by the Kigezi region police spokesperson Elly Maate, said that police had written to the FDC party leadership a letter of notification and he believed that the party secretary general had received it.

“Announcements have all along been on, informing and calling upon people to join the party in thanksgiving prayers in Rukungiri main stadium but we have written to the secretary general of the party about the same and we believe he has received this letter from the Inspector General of Police. They (FDC leaders) usually don’t inform their people. We have always worked jointly with the party and everything has been smooth,” Mr Nanoka said.

He said the police letter was written to FDC on November 16, 2018 replying to the November 14 letter addressed to the IGP by the party leadership informing police about thanks giving prayers they we were organizing.

“There are things that you are supposed to have done but unfortunately, the letter you (FDC) wrote lacks particulars of the organisers. Police in Rukungiri does not know the organisers to work with for peace during the activities. This is one of the reasons the activities are stopped. Politicians know the law but they pretend not to know it doing the opposite,” Mr Nanoka said on Sunday.
By Monday morning, police had deployed more personnel and armoured trucks in several parts of Rukungiri District.
The party leaders had planned to hold thanksgiving prayers for party supporters who died in October 2017 during a rally against the amendment of the presidential age limit.

One Edson Nasasira alias Kakuru, 22, a taxi tout at Nabugabo stage and resident of Kafunjo cell, Eastern division in Rukungiri Municipality was in October last year shot dead as police dispersed FDC supporters. However, police insisted he was hit by a stone.
When contacted by this reporter on Sunday, the party’s national secretary for mobilsation, Ms Ingrid Turinawe said that they had fulfilled all the police requirements.
“I want to state it clearly that we have fulfilled everything that the Public Order Management Act requires of us,” she said.