Are security forces, EC overwhelmed?

Candidates (at the presidential level) have traversed most of the country partly because no rallies are permitted and these campaigns are more of whistlestops. When a train is about to enter and leave the station, a whistle blows to alert those on the platform to get out of its way. The axe fell as most candidates prepared to wind up their campaigns in the vote-rich districts mostly around Kampala, Wakiso, Masaka (where a prior campaign was halted in November in the middle of protests) and 10 other districts with a total voting population of 2.5 million or about 15 per cent of the voters.

Candidates were urged to go virtual in a country where TV and radio coverage are still a relatively scarce resource. Airtime on TV and radio stations can range from Shs250,000 to Shs3m per period, a boon for the communications industry, but a big financial constraint for candidates.

The Constitution guarantees equal access to State media by all presidential candidates, but poorer candidates suffer from non-existent coverage because even the once rich State media hardly has the resources to blanket the campaign. Even then, the reality of numbers hits hard. Market leader Bukedde has a circulation of about 40,000 copies, followed by the New Vision and the Daily Monitor with more modest circulation numbers. There are at least 82 TV stations and more than 300 FM radio stations, but given the single fact that Uganda has more than 50 tribes, this also is a drop in the bucket as most of these stations lack the resources to provide newsworthy coverage other than relays of live events.

Turning to the security forces, Covid-19 has been weaponised to impose law and order in ways that speak to the credibility of the electoral process. Frustrated at being forced from one venue to another, candidates have resorted to open confrontation, running on boda boda or foot. In fact, post Covid-19, the image of the security forces, including police, have hit a new low. I look back at a case involving a journalist Andrew Lwanga, who was beaten up like a cow by a police officer and whom I eventually represented in court for covering a demonstration. The assailant SP Mwesigye, a burly man six foot tall, beat the poor young man like he was a piece of hippo hide.

To its credit, Grade I Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu (the one who unfortunately was water-bombed by court users) in Stella Nyanzi’s trial, convicted him and sentenced him to a prison term and a fine. In the High Court this year, the State invariably lost. In one exchange at the fringes of Buganda Road, SP Mwesigye told me he had been abandoned by his bosses. When I asked him why he had beaten Mr Lwanga in particular with such excessive force almost crippling him, he replied that “probably the journalist was too active.” 

Today, after a curtain dressing proceeding at the Police Disciplinary Unit, SP Mwesigye is back at work and in uniform. This impunity has been attributed to a number of people in security like the gentleman who violently broke the windows of Dr Kizza Besigye’s car and pepper-sprayed him almost impairing his site. Another FDC official long time ago, managed to intimidate the female police officers by undressing herself. Her colleague FDC renegade politician Ingrid Turinawe also won damages after her breasts were squeezed in public.

Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]