Victims who sustained injuries during the riots in Kampala want the government to compensate them for the damages caused.
On Wednesday 18th November 2020, riots broke out in Kampala and other parts of the country as people protested against the arrest of National Unity Platform Presidential Candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu.
Kyagulanyi was arrested and detained at Nalufenya Police station in Jinja and charged with an act likely to spread an infectious disease.
This prompted supporters of Kyagulanyi across the country to protest and Police and the army used tear gas and live bullets indiscriminately to quell the protests leading to the death of over 50 people and several others sustained injuries.
According to the victims whom this reporter found at Mulago National Referral Hospital, they were innocently shot by police and the army yet they were not among the protestors.
Peter Oguyi, a boda boda rider in Kisenyi at the KCCA Health Center Stage narrates that, that fateful day, he had asked for food from a nearby kiosk when he was hit by a bullet.
He narrates that while he was eating food near the health facility, a speeding army pick up came and randomly started shooting towards the health facility and he realized his leg breeding.
He was first admitted at the KCCA health Center before he was transferred to Mulago Hospital where he has now spent over a week.
Oguyi now wants the government to compensate him for the damages caused to him innocently saying that the motorcycle he drove was acquired through a loan and that his family of 3 children and wife is destined for suffering.
Leopold Nyakauma, who deals in spare parts in Kiseka market where the riots started from, narrates that when the chaos erupted, he closed his shop and boarded a boda boda to go home but his journey was cut short when a police officer shot at the boda boda rider.
According to him, when the boda boda rider was shot at, he lost control and they both fell off the motorcycle but he stood up and started running but he was also shot at twice in his both legs before the police van picked him picked and took him to Wandegeya Police station before he was rushed to Mulago.
Nyakauma who has a wife and toddler said that the government should come in and pay for crippling him and now rendering him useless to his family.
Musa Kasolo, a brother to one of the patients said that the bullet found his brother in the park where they work from. He said that his brother should now be compensated and helps his five children who now don’t have a caretaker.
