By M. Suleman

2^nd April 2012: The Baganda say, “Ebye nakku bisekewa’’ – meaning one may be forced to laugh even in the saddest of times. The circumstances surrounding the unfortunate death of AIP Ariong are both sad and worrying.

It is sad because another Ugandan lost his life prematurely.  To many Ugandans, this was not a surprise. It has become a norm that whenever there is a gatherings involving opposition leaders, supporters or onlookers have to die or get serious injuries from flying objects.

Several opposition leaders have been injured by these flying objects.  Many ordinary people have been injured and continue to lose life whenever the police appear at opposition gatherings.  Besigye himself has been hospitalized several times because of these objects.

Recently in Katwe, a similar object ripped the thigh of one Besigye’s aides.  So it was expected that people would get injured or even die like AIP Ariong.  The only difference this time is that it is a special sadness because it is a policeman who died.

The police have never bothered to investigate the origin of the flying objects and what the motives of those unleashing those objects might be. For sure the circumstantial information available clearly indicates that the object was neither meant for AIP Ariong or the police.

To begin with, Ariong was not in uniform when he died.  He had one uniform and he left it behind to be washed.  So unless one knew AIP  Ariong and had a premeditated intention to kill him, there is no way that person would have picked him from the confusion.

Secondly, for Ariong’s killer to succeed in this mission, he needed to have known of the assembly in advance.  Ordinary people did not know the planned tour and direction of the Lord Mayor. It is the police who knew because the Mayor had given them written notice of his intention to move around the city.

In addition, crowd control police officers never move in isolation.  They either move in a cluster or as consolidated and reinforced line of defence towards the surging crowd.  If one intends to strike the police, it is therefore easy.

It is also common knowledge that the confrontations usually begin at the front where the opposition leaders are always involved in arguments with the security officers.  I believe this is where the AIP was.  It is therefore very clear that whoever unleashed this object, unleashed it with the aim of taking out one of the opposition leaders – not the policeman.

At the moment, we don’t know which opposition leader was the target.  What we know for sure is that very few Ugandans can dare attack police officers who are armed to the teeth like Kayihura’s men.  This leaves the possibility that there may have been a premeditated attempt to assassinate some opposition leaders in a choreographed chaos.

The irony is that the same opposition leaders who escaped death are now being charged for a murder in which they were supposed to be the victims.   END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.