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Police spokesperson Fred Enanga. File Photo
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Police and the opposition political party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), have reached an agreement to collaborate on various interventions aimed at enhancing security.
Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, said that during a joint meeting held yesterday at the Police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala, NUP politicians raised concerns, including issues of police blocking their intended rallies and failure by cops to acknowledge letters sent to the Police relating to intended opposition activities.
In response, NUP headed by Robert Kyagulanyi, has been assigned a liaison officer to handle NUP-Police communications related to rallies and countrywide tours.
During the meeting, Enanga added, police and NUP officials also agreed on designated venues and routes for NUP meetings. The move, Enanga said, will ensure security and harmony as NUP embarks on countrywide tours that they launched last week on Wednesday.
Although, police block the opposition party from proceeding with their activities in Kamuli district last week, today’s Mukono rally is expected to go on if NUP officials avoid crowded areas, especially taxi parks as agreed on with police.
“A detailed report on the outcome of meeting will be communicated later,” Enanga said yesterday.
Speaking to journalists yesterday after the meeting, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Joel Ssenyonyi (Nakawa West, NUP) said they also raised concerns as to why police stops NUP rallies but allows other political parties such as Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) to carry out consultative meetings across the country.
“We are law abiding citizens who follow the law. We decided to come, and we raised our concerns. They (Police) said they want us to cooperate, which we agreed too and have always done so. In the Police boardroom they (Police) were humble and accorded us respect including referring to us as Honourables. We only asked not to be stopped and not to infringe on our rights as citizens,” he said.
Ssenyonyi attended the meeting yesterday with Medard Sseggona, (Busiiro East, NUP) and the secretary general of NUP, David Lewis Rubongoya.
The meeting was chaired by the newly appointed Police’s director of operations, Frank Mwesigwa.
Suspension on NUP's Mobilisation Campaigns
In September last year, the outgoing Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Maj. Gen. Tumusiime Katsigazi, announced the immediate suspension of mobilisation campaigns for NUP, citing disregard of public gathering guidelines and continued use of hate speech by party leaders.
The attempt to prepare the public for a potential insurrection is the other reason Katsigazi cited, noting that Kyagulanyi breached the initially agreed-upon principles and guidelines.
At the time, Enanga also said detectives had opened a general inquiries file to probe allegations that Kyagulanyi incited sectarianism and hate speech.
Last week on Monday Rubongoya, said NUP had notified police about the countrywide tours.
“For the record, last week, we notified the police about the up-coming NUP nationwide tour. We gave them our full schedule and the evidence of venue bookings,” he said.
The Robert Kyagulanyi-led party was expected to launch its countrywide tours in Masaka, but the emerging differences between Kyagulanyi and some NUP MPs from greater Masaka have complicated the political ground for him.
The tours have also come at a time when there is bulging internal political rife within NUP, with a section of MPs allying with the former Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga, who is also the Nyendo-Mukungwe division MP against Kyagulanyi.
Some MPs in Mpuuga’s camp such as the Kimaanya-Kabonera division lawmaker, Dr Abed Bwanika, have already roundly called for the replacement of Kyagulanyi as party president, noting that: “We are not going to tolerate the disrespectful and unbecoming conduct of Kyagulanyi.”
Mpuuga and Kyagulanyi fell out over the sh500m service award that Parliament allegedly gave to commissioners of Parliament and the Leader of Opposition in May 2022.
The other battle that NUP faces rotates around the party constitution. The founders of the party led by Moses Kibalama last week sued Kyagulanyi and the Electoral Commission (EC) over allegations that the current party constitution was forged.
