By Titus seruga
It has taken me close to 48 hours to analyze what was happening especially the sad events.
It takes two to fight, you will not find a fight that has one person fighting against no one but two people are always involved. To stop violence, we must look critically at the cause of violence, we must bring leaders of sober minds to speak the truth without fear to both the NUP and Police.
The idea of blaming police is just not helping, why, because police work is protected by the law, you can not win against a law in any courts of law.
Ashraf Shooting:
This shooting should have been avoided if only we speak the truth to people, Ugandans need to know that police has the mandate to maintain law and order under the laws of Uganda, this is also universal. Police can stop you from proceeding to any area and to challenge their decision you will have to go through the police leadership or courts of law.
You cannot under any circumstances use force to disobey a police order, no country in the world accepts a civilian to use force while disobeying a police order, unlawful orders can be appealed or challenged in courts but not by use of force. If NUP understands this fact we shall eliminate the violence.
In some well-documented cases, police have allowed NUP to disorder forcefully, we have seen videos where NUP supporters jump off their cars to make way for Their leader, we have seen videos where police officers are assaulted and insulted, we have seen videos where the leader himself has assaulted police officers at the rank of ASP and SPs these are regional police commanders. These are bad videos for your struggle, to settle this Bobi Wine should come clean about such videos.
The International community will back the police on this, they will tell you that it’s on record that disobeying police authority is not accepted anywhere.
So had Bobi Wine and police engaged themselves in peaceful talks there wouldn’t be such cases of firing rubber bullets, NUP must have disciplined sober people to talk to police, find a way forward and not let everyone shout at police, using force should not be the option because it takes away your right to appeal the matter or even seek justice.
Ugandans should know that rubber bullets and teargas are widely used worldwide by police to disperse crowds, rubber bullets can be dangerous but accepted. These are the things the international community looks at.
On Frank’s Death
It is Unfortunate, this death would have been avoided, I sympathize with his family, I feel the pain of a loved one dying especially in such a manner.
After the Ashraf incident, Bobi Wine rushed Ashraf to a Kako Hospital, they were offered an Ambulance to move to Kampala to a referral hospital, at this point Bobi Wine entered the Ambulance together with Ashraf and they headed to Kampala with a convoy of over 30 cars escorting them, this was not necessary it’s posed a risk to other road users.
Reaching Kyengera the huge convoy got into a traffic jam, at this point we assume the ambulance was ahead of other cars, NUP says that Ashraf got off his transport and decided to clear the way “fungula ekubo” as they call it. This was the second mistake, you can only stop traffic under the law if you are authorized, had he stayed on his transport car we would have avoided this.
Why did he get off his transport this was uncalled for because the Patient Ashraf was in an ambulance which has the right of way and was ahead.
Under Ugandan traffic and road safety laws, only three people have the legal right of way, the President, the Ambulance 🚑 , and the Police. NUP should be told the truth that unless the police move ahead of you and provide a right of way for you, you can not create it yourself, you do so illegally and the courts can’t protect you, the principle of you can’t seek justice from courts with dirty hands applies here.
Circumstances under which Frank died are sketchy, the NUP claims he was intentionally knocked by the Army, so to them it’s murder while UPDF says he missed a step and fell down, the moment UDPF denies foul play then the burden of proof shifts to the accuser (NUP) to prove that indeed the Army Intentionally knocked Frank dead.
I was listening to an eyewitness at NUP headquarters, one speaker said “the army car hit him then reversed back and added him to ensure he was dead” how come we have no recording of this, is it possible that he tried to block army vehicles from moving ahead of their convoy and he was knocked by accident we still don’t know.
I want to put my focus on avoiding violence (prevention) if all these would have been avoided since a lot is missing and besides that, we can’t turn back the clock but am sure there will be another confrontation if we don’t show people what is acceptable and not.
We are tired of saying Rest in Peace, let’s take appropriate blame on what happens, let the disobedience stop its taking our Youths nowhere, the only people that benefit from this short-lived sympathy are those that get money out of it.
The worst will be these youths overpowering one police officer and taking possession of his gun then shoot at police or military killing one or two, this will be the end of NUP, police or the Army will shoot back. I have seen incidents that are close to these youths attacking the military as the one at the hospital. These youths should be told that there are limits clear limits you go beyond, that you are giving police the right to shoot back just because of your actions.
Religious leaders should talk openly to Bobi Wine, his Friends should do the same, there is no excuse for attacking a police officer, no excuse to attack the army or any other person.
God Bless Uganda. Stop the Violence
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