On Saturday, state operative Mathew Kayamunyu allegedly shot and killed a civilian, Kenneth Akena Watmon, after the latter reversed and knocked the armed man’s car.
Even before Saturday’s fatal shooting, several people linked to the security services have gone on shooting sprees, wantonly killing unarmed Ugandans.
Much as such actions are not sanctioned by the state, this state of affairs is not good as it tends to remind us of ‘the past regimes, which brutalized Ugandans’.
Indeed, it is sad to see that such exasperating episodes are stealthily finding their way back into our social fabric, a development that could possibly be attributed to the lackadaisical nature of the evolving political dynamics in the country, where respect for human dignity is slowly getting eroded; where ‘simple’ scores that should otherwise be settled through dialogue are now being settled by the use of force.
Indeed, a casual peek into our politics today will show that the country’s leadership has developed a seeming intolerance towards dissenting opinions, adopting the use of forceful means while trying to leverage the actions of the political actors that speak a ‘different language’ from what the leadership wants to hear.
It is such unrestrained intolerance at the top that is slowly finding its way into the minds of the smaller political actors, who may either be state operatives or even lowly party apparatchiks. This is simply unacceptable!
It is worth mention that the National Resistance Movement/Army (NRM/A) came into existence to reverse a situation that was deemed ‘out of hand’ and this should not be lost on anybody serving in the state security services; the protection of human dignity including the right to life are sanctified and should never be compromised by wayward officials.
On a positive note, it is commendable that the said assailant was arrested and will hopefully have his day to prove his innocence or otherwise.
May Kenneth Akena Watmon rest in peace.