Africa-Press – Uganda. The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, has said that the National Unity Platform (NUP) is not a party of killers.
“I would like to use this occasion to tell the country that we are NUP and not NUF which would stand for National Unity Force. At the onset, our DNA is doing civil politics, we are not militarists and we are not a group out there to do suicides. Not that we are not alive to other choices out there that other political groups have chosen, but we chose to be what we are and that is who we shall remain to be,” Mr Mpuuga told the media in Kamwokya yesterday.
Mr Ofwono Opondo, the government spokesperson responded: “Well, the government hasn’t said NUP is for killers but perhaps it’s only that the guilty mind is afraid. But in any case, it’s possible that there is more than one trend in NUP, a democratic-civil wing that’s law-abiding, and another that’s violent, anarchist, and criminal. Most likely some NUP leaders are being kept out of the violent loop. Remember during campaigns some of them were violent and threatened to destroy everything if they won.”
On Tuesday this week, the Masaka Chief Magistrate’s Court charged the Kawempe North MP Muhammed Ssegirinya and the Makindye West legislator Allan Ssewanyana with murder before remanding them to Kitalya prison.
The duo is accused of having a hand in the recent spate of killings by machete-wielding gangs in Masaka sub-region that left close to 30 people dead.
About 70 suspects have since been arrested in connection with the night killings, of which 10 were charged in court with murder and attempted murder last Wednesday before being remanded to Masaka Ssaza Prison until September 15.
Opposition NUP leadership asked the people of the greater Masaka sub-region, who are being affected by the machete-wielding gangs to form vigilante groups as a way of fighting back the attackers.
According to the top leadership of the party, the government has failed to provide security to the people in the villages of Masaka District and the police in the area are underfunded.
Some ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) top officials, including President Museveni, have blamed the killings in Masaka on politicians, who they claim want to paint a bad image of the government.
Yesterday, Mpuuga said that opposition leaders first brought this matter to the attention of the government through parliament but the ruling regime turned a deaf ear to the matter which would later become contentious.
“The area MPs brought this matter to the floor of parliament for the government to come in. Very clearly, the regime was reluctant to act and we even saw the security personnel in greater Masaka complaining and asking for fuel,” he said.
Ms Lina Zedriga, the NUP deputy president in charge of the Northern region said that there are other killings in the Karamoja sub-region that have been covered up in the ongoing disarmament for the cattle rustlers in the area.
“We are surprised that our MPs are being arrested and yet in Karamoja, many people are being shot dead by the government security saying that they are disarming them. There should be proper investigations into matters before people, especially leaders are arrested in such a matter. We condemn this act in the strongest terms possible,” Ms Zedriga said.
