Mengo wants UPDF to vacate county offices

Mr Joseph Kawuki, the kingdom state minister for local government, says ever since the soldiers camped at Ssingo County headquarters, office work has been paralysed as the men in uniform scare away staff and visitors.

The county headquarters, located in Matutuma Village, Central Division in Mityana Municipality, houses the office of Kabaka’s chief, Mr David Mukwenda Nantajja, and offices of Buganda Land Board (BLB).

“We appreciate the role of the army in stabilising our country, but we expect them to operate from barracks, not from offices of other people. The county headquarters is not a gazetted barracks and their [soldiers] continued stay in that place is affecting the normal operations of our staff,” Mr Kawuki said during an interview on Wednesday.  “All kingdom programmes and projects in the area are on a standstill since no one is allowed to access the county headquarters,” he added.

He said on February 13, members of Buganda Youth Council were to hold a meeting at the county headquarters, but the soldiers reportedly denied the youth access to the venue.

The Mengo minister said they have also received numerous complaints that the county headquarters are currently used as a torture chamber for Opposition supporters who are being abducted by security personnel in the area.

“We have received a lot of complaints from the public that the numberless vans which kidnap Opposition supporters always park at the county headquarters, which gives a bad image. We want this to stop,” Mr Kawuki said.

Mr  Robert Katende, a resident of Katakala Village in Mityana Municipality, claims he was abducted by security agencies and taken to Ssingo County headquarters from where he was tortured and later dumped at Banda stage  in Mityana Town .

We could not independently verify the claims.
Mr Kawuki said since the more than 30 soldiers camped at the county headquarters, he has been unable to access his office.

“I complained to my bosses in Mengo who reported this matter to the concerned people. However, we haven’t got any response,” he said.

The UPDF spokesperson, Brig Flavia Byekwaso, declined to comment on the matter, saying she needed to first consult her superiors. However, by press time, she had not called back neither responded to repeated calls from Daily Monitor.

Background
By the time Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II assumed the throne in 1993, Mengo Palace was serving as an army barracks. But through negotiations with central government, the kingdom got back the palace in the late 1990s.