Police invade DP offices – Mao protests
By George Murumba
3rd Dec 2012:
Democratic Party President General Norbert Mao has protested the police action to invade his party headquarters on Tuesday, November 27, 2012. In a strongly worded letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura, Mao condemned the police invasion as “unlawful”.
The DP leader’s letter produced verbatim hereunder reads: On behalf of the Democratic Party I wish to protest in the strongest terms the actions of the police on Tuesday 27 November 2012.
After the weekly party press briefing a contingent of police officers led by one Mr. Mwesigwa, said to be based at the CPS Kampala, occupied the corridors of the Democratic Party Headquarters at City House, Kampala. They did not give us any prior notice of their presence or even their intentions.
They started pushing away party members and visitors of the party including members of the press. I approached them in the corridor but they were arrogant and hostile telling me that they were “on duty” without elaborating.
I invited the leader to my office and I explained to him that we are a national political party regulated by the law and as such we detest being treated like common criminals. If the police have any reason to question our activities, they should be civil.
The officer said he “thought” we were planning to hold a protest march to Parliament. I told him that if that were the case, we would have announced our intentions in the press briefing.
We were still meeting when our Publicity Secretary, Kenneth Kakande reported that one of our members visiting the party Headquarters, Mr. Nabil Kawooya, had been arrested and after being severely beaten by the police had been dumped into one of the police trucks.
The officer told us that the young man would be released as he may have been a victim of mistaken identity during a general scuffle as people fled the corridors and ran down the staircase of the building into the streets. I asked Kamya Kasozi and Kakande to go to the police vehicle parked on the street and bring back Kawooya.
Instead they were told that they should accompany the police to CPS. When they reached CPS they were told that they were all under arrest and detained. In total four of our officials including Ssewino of the UYD, were arrested. I had to go to CPS where I spent over four hours before our officials were released.
General, if you believe in the rule of law as opposed to the arbitrary rule of those in positions of power then you should join us in condemning this invasion of the sanctity of the DP Headquarters. Above all you should restrain your officers from violent, arbitrary and unprofessional conduct.
The cause of the citywide unrest on that day is well within your knowledge. Parliament has debated and passed provisions in the Oil Bill that ensures oversight over the issuing of oil licenses and execution of contracts.
The President wants no such oversight. He wants a Minister appointed by him to have total control over this strategic resource. The dividing line is between those who want transparency and accountability and those who want none whatsoever.
This is a political dispute and the police undermine its authority and credibility if it appears to have any side or even the slightest partisan inclination. Our understanding is that the role of the police is not to interfere with the enjoyment of rights enshrined in the constitution but to maintain law and order.
The right to assemble and to demonstrate peacefully in petitioning the government to redress wrongs is enshrined in the constitution. Now it appears you and the police force you lead have unilaterally amended the constitution and imposed your own unlawful caveats abolishing those rights.
Be informed that interfering unlawfully with the right to protest will only invite more protests. Indeed the police have become the key mobiliser and instigator of protests. I predict that protests will become more pervasive, frequent and violent unless you urgently review your methods of work and stop the arbitrariness and arrogance that currently define the Uganda Police. We cannot accept a police force which is a law unto itself.
On our part we have never been instruments of aggressive conduct and violence. We have always restrained our members who have manifested even the slightest tendency toward violence. Indeed on that Tuesday Kakande saved two of your plainclothes officers from angry youth.
We are a legitimate political party that has strived to build a better Uganda against all odds and we demand to be treated with dignity and respect. It will be a tragic day for our country if ever the Democratic Party leadership known for its undying commitment to peaceful means, resolve that peaceful means will not help us attain the ends of truth and justice and thus declare open the sluice gates of violence. That is a scenario we should avoid. Please change your methods of work. Obey the law. We cannot take any more arbitrariness. You have pushed us too far.
Yours sincerely,
Norbert Mao Esq.
President
Democratic Party
CC: Hon. Hillary O. Onek MP
Minister of Internal Affairs
CC: Hon. Mathias B. Nsubuga MP
Secretary General, DP
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