Namboole encroachers evicted amid shooting
Mr Moses Wambi, a boda boda rider, who was allegedly shot by UPDF soldiers during an eviction exercise at Namboole, Kireka, yesterday is admitted to Ggwatiro Hospital in Bweyogerere, Wakiso District. PHOTO /ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said the civilians were injured by stray bullets.
- The government bought land at Namboole and constructed a stadium in the early 1990s. In the early 2000s, people started encroaching on the land’s periphery plots.
Hundreds of residents accused of encroaching on government land around Mandela National Stadium, Namboole, were yesterday forcefully evicted amid intense shooting by Uganda Peoples Defence Forces soldiers.
Mr Moses Wambi, 20, and Mr Warren Nuwamanya, 43, both boda boda riders were shot and sustained bullet wounds.
Mr Wambi said he was riding past the deployed security team when he felt his arm was paralysed.
“Then I saw blood oozing from my body. I then realised that I had been shot. I was taken by well-wishers to the health centre for treatment,” Mr Wambi said at Gwatiro health facility where he was admitted.
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said the civilians were injured by stray bullets.
“Wambi was taken to Gwatiro Health Centre where he is undergoing treatment while Nuwamanya was taken to a clinic in Kireka. The encroachers have been successfully evicted,” Mr Onyango said yesterday.
The government bought land at Namboole and constructed a stadium in the early 1990s. In the early 2000s, people started encroaching on the land’s periphery plots.
Recently, the government hired the UPDF construction brigade to renovate the stadium and to build a fence around it. The UPDF engineers fenced off several homes of encroachers inside the government land.
The affected residents have been using a culvert to access and exit the fenced land.
The stadium authorities gave the residents up to February 15, 2023 to vacate the land.
Mr Onyango said some of the encroachers left the land while others defied. The defiant residents demanded for compensation.
“Today (Thursday)’s eviction was successful, but along the way, during the exercise, some few people attempted to resist which forced UPDF soldiers to fire in the air and in the process a stray bullet injured one Wambi,” he said.
Army view
The UPDF Deputy Spokesperson, Col Deo Akiiki, accused the affected residents, who he said were led by the area vice chairman, Mr Godfrey Kawooya, of attacking their engineers, prompting the shooting.
“The security detail protecting the site and workers shot three warning shots to disperse Mr Kawooya’s gang, but in vain. Chaos ensued and three of our soldiers were injured including Pte Maseruka Jackson, whose fingers were cut by pang-welding gangs,” Col Akiiki said yesterday.
No one was arrested over the alleged chaos.
