Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The National Unity Platform-NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu says the decision by Electoral Commission to suspend campaigns in certain districts deemed to be hotspots for Covid-19 is a ploy to frustrate their agenda but they will not back down.
This came a few hours after the Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama halted campaigns in Masaka, Wakiso, Jinja, Kalungu, Kazo, Tororo, Kasese and Kampala districts due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases. Byabakama explains that the districts are among the most affected according to the Ministry of Health and political activities might worsen the situation.
The unpleasant information found Kyagulanyi at Kibaale playground in Rakai district where he was holding a huge rally. Kyagulanyi told voters that he suspects President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is behind the decision since he is scared of seeing huge crowds of NUP supporters.
Kyagulanyi told his supporters that he is not representing the generals in the army, professors and the rich but the ordinary people whose issues have not been addressed for several decades with the National Resistance Movement-NRM in power. He said he is more concerned about youth unemployment, unfair prices of agricultural produce which have left the farmers poorer than before, and those whose land was fraudulently taken from them.
He urged his supporters to remain strong even when they are oppressed by police, the army and other security operatives. He explains that Museveni is using the taxpayers guns to intimidate citizens.
Police used teargas and live bullets in Lumbugu trading centre and Rakai town council to disperse Kyagulanyi’s supporters who had gathered to cheer him. Several people were injured in the scuffle that lasted for over four hours. Rose Namuwonge is one of those admitted at Rakai hospital in critical condition after she was hit by a teargas canister that ripped her leg open.
Muhammad Nsubuga, the Masaka Regional Police Spokesperson blames the problem on candidates who have failed to observe the Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), which exposes their supporters to infection and clashes with security.
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