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UPDF withdraws royal guards from Rwenzururu kingdom
The second division army spokesperson Major Ronald Kakurungu said UPDF has temporarily left the palace for reorganization given what happened on Sunday but they will redeploy
Kasese
Following the violent clashes that occurred between UPDF officers and Rwenzururu traditional royal guards on Sunday afternoon, all UPDF guards attached to the kingdom have been withdrawn.
A source close to the kingdom that preferred anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told this paper that Omusinga Mumbere was bitter about what happened. UPDF officers have consequently vacated his palace.
The second division army spokesperson Major Ronald Kakurungu said UPDF is mandated by the constitution to be there.
“It is not true that UPDF has been withdrawn. We have temporarily left the palace for reorganization following what happened on Sunday but we [UPDF] will go back”, Maj Kakurungu said on Tuesday at Kasese police station during a press briefing.
He said UPDF has a fully-fledged directorate of royal guards and the director has been told of what happened and they will sit to see how to schedule deployments.
He added that the army has received three guns that were picked from the armory after the store keeper escaped from the palace for fear of his life following a break out of violence as UPDF soldiers clashed with traditional royal guards.
“We asked him to return our guns which he had kept from the store after the scuffle and we have asked him to trace for the police gun that is being hidden in the palace” Kakurungu said.
Daily Monitor has reliably learnt that senior Government officials are engaged in official and closed door meetings with key powers brokers in Rwenzori region to lay strategies of curbing the violence.
Over the weekend, the King of Rwenzururu Charles Wesley Mumbere insisted that police must withdraw the Flying Squad in the interest of peace in the Rwenzori region.
“For peace to prevail in region, all the so called Police Flying squad must be withdrawn from the region as their motive is still unknown apart from killing my people”, said Mumbere after handing over the guns.
Last week, the president while at Fort portal state lodge in Njara told media that the Omusinga had agreed to cooperate with government in order to make up joint investigations into the cause of the conflict and the possible solutions.
More than 40 people including government security personnel have been killed and scores injured in Kasese and Bundibugyo districts in the last one month after post-election violence broke out in the region.
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