The Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Gulu Woman MP Betty Aol Ocan has castigated the Uganda Police after one of the force’s officers on Tuesday morning shot dead a journalist and village publicist on duty at Sembule area in Lubaga Division.
“The state of tyranny is excessively worrying. I have learnt with deep sadness of the murder of David Kibuuka, a journalist while on duty covering a protest in Kabowa, Kampala by a senior Police Officer,” she posted on her Facebook page.
Only recently, the Uganda Journalist Association petitioned the Inspector General of Police against Police high-handedness and brutality towards journalists, in light of the Makerere University tuition increment protests and other activities around the country, she said.
The politician wants the responsible officer held for murder. “We in the strongest terms demand that the culprits of this heinous murder be brought to book and condemn all attempts at gagging Media Freedoms in Uganda,” she said, adding that today is yet another sad day for media freedom in Uganda.
Kibuuka, also a village publicist is said to have been gunned down by the policeman as he was covering a demo in which protestors were attempting to force their way onto the premises of Shreeji Stationers 2009 whose owners they blamed for blocking roads and drainage systems which leads to flooding.
According to ASP Luke Owoyesigyire, Justice Bwire, the officer who commanded others has been arrested and is being held at Old Kampala Police Division as investigation into the killing of Kibuuka continue.
His body was rushed to Mulago Hospital for a postmortem, even though Owoyesigyire claims he had been rushed to the facility while alive and was only pronounced dead on arrival.
Owoyesigyire says the police fired live bullets into the crowd holding a demo, he says was illegal. It is not clear whether police is allowed to shoot live bullets in crowds/ demonstrators in effort to disperse them for illegal assembly.
