Bukwo ‘Besigye tormentor’ transferred

The Sipi region police commander Gerald Tuyishime has been transferred following an altercation involving his officers and the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) flag bearer Dr Warren Kizza Besigye in Bukwo district.

By press time it was not possible to ascertain where Tuyishime had been transferred and efforts to contact police spokesperson Fred Enanga were futile.

But sources intimated Mr Tuyishime was not in office.

On Tuesday, January 5 the police under the command of Mr Tuyishime opened fire and threw tear gas canisters at Dr Besigye and his supporters, while they tried to access the Teriet camp.

Other FDC members injured in the fracas included party Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi, Mobilisation Secretary Ms Ingrid Tutinawe and the party’s Secretary for Defence and Security Sadik Amin.

The Teriet camp, alongside four others is host to people who were evicted from Mt Elgon after it was gazetted in 1993, and Dr Besigye and his entourage had been invited by the camp residents ‘to see the squalid conditions’ they live under. And that is when the police swung into action, in an attempt to disperse the frenzied crowd.

Over the past few months the police have come under scrutiny from sections of society and the international community, who accuse the force acting unprofessionally and in a partisan manner.

The most recent negative publicity on police came from the US government and Human Rights Watch (HRW), both of which pointed a sore finger at the activities of the lead security agency for the forthcoming presidential elections on February 18.

However, the police led by Inspector General Gen Kale Kayihura and Force Spokesperson Commissioner of Police (CP) Enanga have vehemently defended the institution against the accusations that include brutality, unprofessionalism and partisanship.

Meanwhile, two senior police officers have been suspended following a raid on a printer where Dr Kizza Besigye’s campaign manifesto was being printed.

The officer in charge of Central Police Station in Kampala Ronald Mugabi and the station Intelligence Officer Moses Lukonge were suspended by the IGP after the duo raided MPK Publishers on Nasser Road last Friday, and seized copies of the manifesto.

Media reports indicate Kampala Metropolitan spokesperson Patrick Onyango saying the two had been referred to the Police Standards Unit to help with investigations into the incident.