UPDF, police disown car that killed Bobi Wine fan

Mystery has clouded the identity of the vehicle that knocked and killed a supporter of presidential aspirant Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, in Jinja City on Saturday.

Charles Mutyabule was on Saturday afternoon knocked dead as a group of supporters escorted Bobi Wine who was returning from a talk show on Baba FM, a radio station in Jinja.

After the show, crowds of supporters, who had been waiting for Bobi Wine outside the radio station, joined him on the road chanting his People Power slogan as they followed him while he waved to them.

At about 1pm in Mabira Forest in Sanga Village, Buikwe District, a double cabin pickup truck of army green colour knocked one of the supporters who was riding a motorcycle. He was later pronounced dead at Kawolo Hospital. Bobi Wine alleged yesterday that it was a military truck, which killed his supporter in front of the cameras and his car.

“This vehicle had been pursuing our supporters from Jinja and the incident happened right in front of me. Previously, the regime has frustrated efforts to get videos of these crimes out but in this case, the murder of our brother was captured on camera. The spectacle dazed my eyes,” he told Daily Monitor.

Brig Gen Richard Karemire, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesperson, denied the vehicle belonged to the army. He challenged Bobi Wine to prove that the number plate of the truck belonged to the military.

“What I can bluntly tell you is No. Those people just want to incriminate the army for nothing. A car having army colours doesn’t make it ours. After all the People Power women have posted that the car was a police vehicle, so you can seek more details from there,” Brig Karemire said by telephone.

In a video circulated on social media by People Power, the pick-up truck emerges behind Bobi Wine’s car, overtakes him and races towards motorcycle riders who were moving ahead in the convoy.

The truck knocks one of the riders down and speeds off. The video clip ends here.
Ssezibwa Regional Police spokesperson Hellen Butoto said yesterday that the accident happened so fast that they could not readily identify the runaway vehicle. She said the vehicle and the driver had not been identified by last evening.
People Power members yesterday also claimed that the driver of another police patrol car at Wanyama Road in Jinja lost control and knocked two children as police chased the presidential aspirant out of the town. They said one child later died.

Daily Monitor could not readily verify the information about the incident.
Jinja District Police Commander Ahmed Hasunira said he was not aware of the incident and referred us to the district police spokesperson for further details.

Efforts to get a comment from the district police spokesperson were futile as his known telephone numbers were not available.

Mr Lewis Rubongoya, the People Power executive secretary, said: “We are seeking justice from international human rights bodies because our courts here are not reliable. As we do that, we are seeking other means of making sure the government comes out to clarify these incidents.”

Recent incidents
In February, a police patrol allegedly knocked down Ritah Nabukenya, a People Power supporter in Nakawa Division, a Kampala suburb, and she later succumbed to the injuries. On August 6, 2019, Hakim Ssekamwa was allegedly knocked by a police patrol truck in Luweero Town as Bobi Wine and his supporters returned from a funeral in the same district.