IPC Officials Arrested At Katonga Road

SOURCE: THE RED PEPPER, 21 JANUARY 2012

Besigye and another official being dragged by policemen during arrest a while ago

Top officials of Inter-Party coorperation have been arrested. The officials led by FDC president Dr Kiiza Besigye including MPs Wafula Oguttu, Nabilah Ssempala and Mathias Mpuuga among others were in a closed-door meeting that lasted over 4 hours planning a rally to relaunch walk to work protests at Freedom Tree in Katwe, a city suburb.

Others in attendance were  Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and former  Kashari MP John Kazoora. They were rounded up and bundled onto police cars and whisked away. Besigye, in the trade mark no nonsense arrest he is accustomed to, was bundled onto a police pick up truck registration number UP 1928 while the other officials were ordered to board a police bus registration number UP 2967.

Wafula Oguttu pleads with a cop not to tear his white t-shirt during arrest

The officials had started their journey in a convoy of eight cars all heading to Katwe for the rally. As the convoy joined Ssezibwa road, police commanded by Kampala DPC Norman Musinga and Lawrence Nuwabaine intercepted them and started demanding for their driving permits.

There was heavy security deployment along Katonga Road, cordoning off IPC Offices on Plot 6 where the meeting was taking place.  “Even a fly could not escape,” a wowed onlooker told this reporter.

Masaka Municipality MP, Mathias Mpuuga, who is the A4C coordinator and organiser of the rally, had however been left to proceed before the arrests took place.

Mpuuga last week announced the resumption of the Walk to Work protests arguing that the situation had not changed since the last protests in April and May last year.

Earlier, police fired teargas to disperse people who had gathered around Kampala Woman MP Nabilah  Ssempala in Ndeeba as she attempted to drive to Katwe. Kampala Metropolitan Police director, Andrew Kaweesi said IPC officials  planned to walk in the morning but police deployed and blocked them. He said his men deployed  at the homes of the suspected officials including Ssempala, who had reportedly spent a night with Anne Mugisha.

Police also deployed at the homes of Besigye, Major General Mugisha Muntu, the FDC secretary for mobilisation, and Ssemujju among others. Kaweesi said up to 10,000 policemen have been deployed to manage the situation in the city. These include trainees from Police Training School, Kabalye.