Kayunga leaders stage demo in forest over unfulfilled pledges

A section of leaders in Kayunga District yesterday beat the heavy security deployment to stage a demonstration over unfulfilled presidential pledges.

While the security agencies concentrated their deployment on known streets, the leaders instead held their protest in a forest.

The peaceful demonstration dubbed, “Black Independence”, which was organised to highlight the sorry state of Kayunga-Galilaaya road and President Museveni’s failure to tarmac it, was slated to start from Kitwe Trading Centre in Kayonza Sub-county, with demonstrators walking a 10km distance to Kitimbwa Trading Centre.

Led by Mr Charles Tebandeke, the Bbaale County MP, the demonstrators had in August written to the Inspector General of Police seeking clearance for their planned demonstration but never got a response.

Later, Ms Rosette Sikahwa, the Kayunga District Police Commander, informed organisers of the protest that it was illegal and had been blocked by security.

But Mr Tebandeke and a section of other leaders insisted on going ahead with execution of their plans, saying no one, even the police, had powers to foil their constitutional right of carrying out a peaceful demonstration.

Yesterday, security was beefed up in all trading centres in Bbaale County, with both police and army patrolling the entire area in urban centres.

The demonstrators, who abandoned their vehicles and rode on motorcycles for some time, engaged in a mouse and cat chase as security tried to scatter any gathering.

Earlier, there were unconfirmed reports that some of the organisers of the demonstration had been arrested by security on Sunday night.

But later, the organisers of the protest, who also included Ms Harriet Nakwedde, the former contestant in the Kayunga District LC5 by-election and Mr Joseph Ouma, who was the Kayunga District NRM secretary general, now a NUP mobiliser, changed their game plan and instead gathered in Butalabuna Forest in Kayonza Sub-county, where they held a their demonstration.

Security tried to hunt them down in vain. They carried placards with inscriptions: “No tarmac road, no votes, we are tired of being taken for granted.”

“We are surprised that instead of President Museveni fulfilling the pledge he made to the people of Kayunga to tarmac this road in 2001, he has brought armoured vehicles to fight us. We are not against President Museveni or the government but we want this road tarmacked,” Mr Tebandeke said as he carried a placard.

He wondered why the 89-km road that has been appearing in the national budget for more than 20 years has not been worked on, adding that residents had run out of patience.

“This government only understands the language of demonstrations. We shall not be blocked from demanding what the President pledged to us, even if it means doing so under our beds,” the MP added.

Mr Tebandeke said besides being dusty and filled with potholes, about 10 residents have died in accidents related to the sorry state of the road.

The angry residents had in July held two similar protests, which were also blocked by security.

Mr Joseph Ouma, a resident of Bbaale,  said they will not relent until the road is worked on because Independence Day celebrations carried no meaning with bad roads.

However, Ms Sikahwa cautioned residents against being used by selfish politicians.

“The politicians are just playing politics and I want to warn youth not to join them,” Ms Sikahwa said.

Gen Katumba Wamala, the minister of Works and Transport, in an earlier interview with this publication, asked residents to remain calm as the government looks for funds to tarmac the road.

During the Obote II regime, there was a plan to tarmac the Kayunga-Galilaaya road to create a shorter route to northern Uganda but the government was toppled before the plan materialised.