In what one can describe as a rendition of the 1976 Soweto uprising when the South Africa Apartheid regime unleashed canine dogs at students demonstrating against school regulation, the Police on Monday, released it’s canine dogs at the National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters at Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, also known as Bobi Wine’s Kawempe rallies.
The NUP Presidential candidate’s rallies in Kawempe North and Kawempe South attracted mammoth crowds in the opposition stronghold area prompting police to use resources available to put the crowd in control.
Earlier on, the Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke announced the banning of campaign processions for candidates in a bid to promote orderly and peaceful campaigns across the country as presidential, parliamentary, local government, and Special Interest Group (SIG) activities continue nationwide.
“Processions are prohibited, candidates should find their supporters at the campaign grounds” Kituuma noted in a statement.
Despite the restrictions, supporters continued to gather from the NUP Headquarters in Makerere Kanule to the rally venues, prompting police to fire teargas at several points to break up crowds both during and after the rally.
During Bobi wine’s first address at the Kawempe Growers Playing Ground, the police unleashed the dogs on by standing supporters and fired teargas to disperse the massive crowds that had gathered to listen to Bobi Wine.
The teargas, dogs and ensuing chaos left a number of NUP supporters with a number of injuries, the scene wasn’t any different from his second rally in Kawempe North.
Bobi Wine condemend the joint security operations actions in a post on his X account noting that the acts were meant to intimidate his supporters and derail his campaign trail.
“The day began with the usual military hostility unleashed on our peaceful supporters. The intention was to break us down but guess what? Our people were unrelenting and they braved all this intimidation to be part of our revolution. Kawempe has made a bold statement. This is the true definition of the protest vote” Bobi Wine posted.
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Following the day’s events, Police in a statement said seven security officers sustained injuries and several security vehicles were also damaged by the crowd including an ambulance following an attack on them at the NUP headquarters in Makerere-Kavule which promoted the force to respond.
“Security personnel responded by using public order measures to control the rowdy crowds. Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with these incidents” the statement read.
Bobi Wine is set to campaign in Mukono Municipality on Tuesday as he continues his campaign trail.
