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UPDF soldiers raid another police station, beat up commander
A man shows injuries he sustained during the raid by the soldiers. He is among those who had gone to the station to make statements. PHOTO | IBRAHIM KAVUMA
What you need to know:
- This is the second incident in weeks in which soldiers have raided police facilities and targeted police commanders and their subordinates.
Over 20 soldiers in four Toyota Hiace vans, notoriously known as drones, have raided Wakiso Police Division, beat and detained the district police commander, Superintendent of Police Esther Kiiza and other officers before they fired several bullets at her office and in the air.
Eyewitnesses and other sources told this publication that heavily armed soldiers attached to the Presidential Task Force on Land Matters and the Environment, led by Brig Moses Lukyamuzi, raided the police division, accusing the police commander of frustrating their operation in a land dispute.
A police source said the soldiers stormed SP Kiiza’s office demanding an explanation why she was reportedly intervening in a land dispute they have an interest in Wakiso District.
Wakiso District is one of the hotbeds of land grabbing and disputes in the country.
“As the DPC was trying to make a phone call to her superior to consult, one of the soldiers at the rank of Warrant Officer snatched her mobile phone. Then the other soldiers surrounded her office and started shooting at it,” a source said.
Ms Kiiza was able to grab a radio call and asked for reinforcement before the soldiers grabbed it too, the source said.
After noticing that the DPC had called for help, the rogue soldiers rushed to their drones in an attempt to flee the scene.
However, a team composed of the police and the military arrived and intercepted some of the soldiers at Nansana Township, causing a standoff that paralysed traffic along that section of Kampala-Hoima Road for several minutes.
By press time, another source said the joint team that was called for reinforcement is still hunting for other soldiers who had escaped arrest.
The 7pm Monday (June 2) incident reportedly stems from a land dispute between the owner of one of the biggest supermarkets in the district and his brother.
It is alleged that the day before (June 1), some of the employees of the said supermarket flanked by a group of UPDF soldiers, stormed the contested piece of land and fenced it without informing the police and the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) who heads the security committee of the district.
The following day (June 2), another group working for the brother of the supermarket owner also raided the same land and pulled down the fence.
Soldiers attached to the Presidential Task Force on Land Matters and the Environment rushed to the scene and arrested six people who reportedly pulled down the fence poles before they took them to Wakiso Police Station to be detained.
It is alleged that the DPC was hesitant to detain them before consulting his superiors, an act that the soldiers considered disrespectful to their authority.
This is the second incident in weeks in which soldiers have raided police facilities and targeted police commanders and their subordinates.
Last month, soldiers raided Lubowa Police Station, beat up police officers, including the Officer-in-charge, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Innocent Sunday, and the civilians before robbing them of money, mobile phones, government stores and other items.
The raid followed an arrest of eight suspects by soldiers who accused them of different offences, including attempted assassination of a judicial officer and wrongful parking at Lubowa Housing Estate. The soldiers handed the suspects to officers who were hesitant to detain them.
Police later opened offences of attempted murder and aggravated robbery against the soldiers.
