Peace Service Ambassador Milton Kambula speaks during a past event at a local radio station in Kampala, Uganda (PHOTO/Courtesy)
KAMPALA – Peace Service Ambassador Milton Kambula has on Thursday, March 13 condemned the targeted attack and brutal assault on journalists covering the Kawempe North by-election.
“The brutal assault on journalists is unfortunate and unacceptable,” Ambassador Kambula told PML Daily.
A number of journalists, including Denis Kabugo, Abubaker Lubowa, Francis Isabirye, Hakim Wampamba, and Raymond Tamale, were violently arrested by security personnel and bundled into a drone car while covering the elections in Kazo-Angola parish in Kawempe North constituency.
Ambassador Kambula noted that it’s unfortunate that security organs in the country have resorted to intimidating voters and arresting journalists whose work is to inform the nation of what is transpiring in Kawempe.
“The people of Kawempe should be left to exercise their civic rights as enshrined in the Constitution. Those security officers clad in masks to unleash violence against the voters, I call them terrorists because what they are doing is against the laws of the land,” Ambassador Kambula said.
He cited Article 1 of the Constitution, which states that all power belongs to the people, and Article 59, which gives every Ugandan a right to choose a leader of their own.
“The characteristics of the people in Kawempe are unique. They should be allowed to choose a leader of their choice, having lost their MP, Hon. Mohammad Ssegirinya, in painful circumstances, noting that the by-election should not be a war or a battlefield,” Kambula observed.
“To the security forces, why do you follow unlawful orders of beating up innocent Ugandans who have come out to exercise their rights of choosing a leader? Why do you use the guns that we bought for you to offer us security to instead unleash violence against us, the taxpayers?” Kambula asked.
Kambula noted that what has transpired in Kawempe is regrettable and goes against their efforts to advocate for peace in the country.
“For the recent past, I have traversed the entire country, appearing on several media houses, calling for peaceful elections and condemning brutality meted on the citizens of Uganda. ‘Peace is the foundation for security, let’s all maintain peace during this exercise; there is no need to pull ropes and fight each other,’ has been my signature message across the country,” Kambula said.
Commenting on the country’s democracy, the political analyst noted that Uganda’s democracy is still growing, though at a slow pace.
“The emergence of independent candidates after involving in internal party selection is a high level of indiscipline and this is undermining both internal party and national democracy,” Kambula emphasized.
Kambula observed that politics based on religion, gender, and tribes still undermines democracy.
“It’s all about playing politics that unites the country, unites tribes, unites religions. The politics of partisanship, tribalism, sectarianism has made Kawempe remain as a slum, a poor place in the country, a conflict zone in the country,” Kambula said.
“So we feel that this election in Kawempe is going to uplift and put the citizens of Uganda who live in Kawempe to connect to the national perspective and ideology that we are one nation, one people, created by one God.”
The people of Kawempe North constituency went to the polls on Thursday to elect their representative in Parliament after losing their MP, Mohammad Ssegirinya, early this year.
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