Nantaba’s SFC guards probed over assaulting mourners

Former state minister for information Communication Technology Ida Nantaba’s Special Forces Command (SFC) guards are being investigated by police and other security agencies over alleged “gross misconduct” after allegedly assaulting mourners in Kayunga District at the weekend.

The probe of the four SFC guards attached to Ms Nantaba, which has been confirmed by the SFC spokesperson, Mr Jimmy Dennis Omara and the Kayunga District CID boss, Ms Beatrice Ajwang, follows a Sunday afternoon fracas that broke out during the funeral of late Isaac Kanzaali, who was the Kitimbwa Town Council Mayor.

Although Ms Nantaba who is also the Kayunga District Woman MP was dropped from her ministerial post in 2021, she is still guarded by heavily armed SFC guards, who travel in vehicles without number plates.

According to collaborated testimonies from a number of sources [mourners] who attended the funeral, it all started when a section of mourners protested a move by the master of ceremony, Mr Matia Egwana, to declare Ms Nantaba as the chief mourner.

The MC’s announcement infuriated some mourners who shouted in protest, advising that since late Kanzaali was an NRM leader, Mr Moses Karangwa, the Kayunga District NRM chairman, should be the chief mourner.

Ms Nantaba was the last to address the mourners after other officials
like Mr Karangwa, Mr Andrew Muwonge, the Kayunga District chairman, Mr Charles Tebandeke, the Bbaale County MP and Ms Jacky Birungi the Buvuma RDC, among others, had finished.

Mr Kizza Mutwalibi, the Kayunga District NRM spokesperson, explained that this resulted into chaos as both groups traded insults.

“The group opposed to Ms Nantaba’s officiating of the ceremony accused
her of neglecting her friend (Kanzaali) on his deathbed and only surfacing when he had died,” Mr Kizza said.

As Ms Nantaba continued with her address to hundreds of mourners amid protests, her SFC guards who had taken positions around her wielding clubs and guns pounced on some of the  perceived ‘ring leaders’ of the protest and started beating them.

As the beating went on, Mr Tebandeke said, bullets were fired in the air supposedly to disperse the charged crowd that had been angered by
the battering of mourners by the SFC soldiers.

This, caused a stampede for about 25 minutes as the mourners, including officials fled the venue and took refuge in their cars while others hid in the nearby coffee gardens.

The body was deserted as relatives scampered for their dear lives.

The Kitimbwa police station OC CID, Mr James Egesa, said four mourners
were seriously injured after allegedly being battered by the SFC soldiers and are receiving treatment at Kayunga Regional Referral Hospital.

Although Ms Nantaba blamed the chaos on her political nemesis “who ferried goons to the funeral” the SFC spokesperson Mr Omara described the act by the soldiers as “gross misconduct.”

“It is true they [SFC soldiers] acted in an unprofessional manner and we have sent a team to work with the police to investigate the matter. If we find out that she [Nantaba] is using the soldiers attached to her to cause mayhem, we shall withdraw them,” Mr Omara said in a telephone interview with this publication.

Mr Omara, however, clarified that SFC soldiers were deployed to guard the former minister because “she is a leader with security threats”, adding that, “she [Nantaba] is not in any way more special than others.”

Mr Tebandeke during a press conference after the incident asked President Museveni to immediately recall Ms Nantaba’s SFC guards, accusing her of using the soldiers to terrorise residents.

Ms Nantaba criticised her political opponents of fuelling unnecessary chaos in the district.

“We are waiting for the case files from Kitimbwa so that we decide the next step,” Ms Ajwang said.

Mr Karangwa and Ms Nantaba who were once good friends are now sworn political enemies, that at some point in 2013, President Museveni attempted to reconcile the two leaders in vain. Ms Nantaba has since refused to
stand on the NRM ticket accusing the party of harboring ill-sentiments
against her.