Police block Uganda’s opposition leader’s radio talk show, chaos engulfs town
Kampala, Uganda (PANA) – Uganda police, supported by the military, has invaded a radio station in the eastern town of Jinja, forcing the management to stop a live talk show and deny opposition leader Kizza Besigye from addressing his supporters.
After the radio was switched off, policemen forced Besigye and his allies out of the studios and got him into his vehicle with the intention of towing it away, but his driver managed to drive off before the vehicle was chained.
Commotion then ensued as the police worked to stop him from addressing his supporters, with one of Besigye’s aides posting a picture of blooded hands on Facebook.
Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, however, denied that the police had switched off the radio station, pointing out that the business of regulating radio stations is the responsibility of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
UCC spokesperson Fred Otunnu, however, also denied knowledge of the development. Jinja is 82km from the capital, Kamapala.
Besigye, who has challenged President Yoweri Museveni in four previous elections, is on a countrywide tour asking Ugandans to rise up and throw out Museveni before the next elections scheduled for 2021.
The opposition leader, famous for organizing street protests, had taken a lull for about two years after the 2016 election but declared at the end of 2018 that he had done sufficient groundwork to ensure that Museveni is thrown out of power in 2019, which he declared as “the year of action”.
Besigye claims to have won the 2016 election with 52% of the votes, although the electoral body declared Museveni winner with 60.9% and Besigye just over 35.6% of the votes.
After declaring himself winner of the 2016 election, a video surfaced on social media showing Besigye being “sworn-in” as president, which prompted the police to arrest him and charge him with treason.
The treason trial, however, has not taken off and Besigye has since refused to report to the court where he was charged and is required to show up every two months.
The court has responded by issuing criminal summons against him, but even that did not compel him to return to the court.
Besigye says he would have challenged in court the election results for 2016 in court but he was held under house arrest until the ten days within which an aggrieved presidential candidate may file a court petition were over.
Because that window was out, Besigye demanded an audit of the 2016 carried out by “credible” international organisations, but this proposal, which is not provided for in the Ugandan law, was rebuffed by the government.
Besigye then inaugurated what he calls the “people’s government”, complete with a cabinet and an equivalent of a legislature, the “people’s parliament”.
In recent weeks, Besigye has traversed the country inaugurating what he calls “people’s assemblies” at the local levels and readying his team for non-violent mass action, which he argues is legal and legitimate under the circumstances.
The police kept a blind eye on him at the start of this round of activity, but it has since rolled up its sleeves to confront him.
In the last two weeks, his activities have been blocked by the police amidst hurling teargas and shooting live bullets in the air in five different places, and the Jinja incident in which his talk show was disrupted is the second such act in two weeks.
-0- PANA EM/VAO 13April2019
