Journalist Julius Odeke in hospital after he was shot

He was thrust from the peace and quiet imposed by the gods of Mt Elgon into the limelight after he was shot by government soldiers during the violent clash between supporters of FDC strongman Hon Nandala Mafabi [Budadiri West] and his NRM opponent Beatrice Wabudeya.  Now Journalist Julius Odeke tells the story of his shooting in a three part series.

It was unbelievable! I was shot in the rib cage by military men while covering the presidential and parliamentary elections of February 18^th 2011.  I underwent two surgical operations to save my life. My equipments were damaged.  They included a Dell Laptop, camera and digital voice recorder.

Scores of Mafabi’s supporters were beaten badly; four of them died on arrival at Mbale Referral Hospital.  I thought I was going the same way that very day.  When I was admitted at Mbale hospital, fear gripped me as my relatives and I learnt that the Ugandan security was looking for my whereabouts. So I had to be relocated in a tainted windscreen salon car to a secret medical facility in Soroti.

The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) had deployed heavily in all parts of the country.  Their sole aim was to disrupt elections, mostly in areas where the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party had a strong interest.  These included areas like Sironko district, Serere, Bukedea, Jinja, Amuria to mention but a few.

The UPDF had been instructed by the army’s top brass during the Tarehe Sita celebrations to ensure that all NRM candidates win elections.  Their mission was to disrupt opposition supporters from voting.

In Sironko district-Budadiri West constituency where Nathan Nandala Mafabi was tussling it out with the regime’s Minister for Presidency Dr Beatrice Mukaye Wabudeya, elections never went down well.  The army wanted to stop the powerful Chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Nandala Mafabi being returned to parliament.

Since I was shot, several Ugandan journalists have been injured by Ugandan security forces while covering national events countrywide, and this leaves the safety of journalists at a stake.

Cometh the day, cometh the hour

In the early hours of election-day on Friday 18^th February 2011, I heard that security operatives had rounded up several vehicles belonging to the Member of Parliament (MP) for Budadiri West Constituency Hon. Nandala Mafabi.  I also heard that they were beating up his polling agents. I quickly got onto a boda boda (motorbikes Ugandans use as taxis) to take me to the scene at Bugusege police post.

On reaching there, I found the army and police on alert.  Their guns held at waist length, ready to attack anyone who would dare to cause commotion.  But the commotion was caused by NRM party supporters who were Beatrice Mukaye Wabudeya loyalists.

As I usually do, I went to the police post and I requested to talk to the officer in charge of the station. One officer told me that he was the one.  I introduced myself to them by showing my press card which showed that I was a freelance Journalist on assignment for the Xinhua News Agency.

The police officer then told me that there was nothing wrong in the area.  That the area was calm and people were getting ready to go and cast their votes.  But there was a saloon car that I knew belonged to Nandala Mafabi. I wondered what it was doing there and I asked about its presence.  I was told it had been confiscated by police on grounds that Nandala Mafabi’s people were bribing people.

But Mafabi’s wife Flora Nandala [whom I interviewed about what was going on and why their truck was at the police station] told an all together different story.  “…The NRM supporters of Dr Beatrice Wabudeya wanted to buy off our polling agents with 1million Shillings (approx US$425) each.  So we had not given them their polling letters due to fear…we were taking them at that time so that they could not be bribed”, she said

At the police station, I saw an old woman, Kezia Nafungo, 70, who had been beaten up so badly by the NRM supporters for supporting Nandala. She was weeping.

At that time, Nandala also came and some of the NRM supporters started fighting him at the police post as he was trying to urge the police to carry out their duties of keeping law and order.  A fracas ensued on both sides of the political divide and several people were injured.

Nandala’s supporters apprehended three huge men with money and letters that were supposed to be given to agents. The money was shown to the many police officers and soldiers available but they said they could not do anything to the suspected NRM election bribers.

The MP decided to leave the police post to go and cast his vote. I hitched a ride in his car, intending to take his photo while he was putting his ballot papers in the polling box. Nandala had a convoy of four vehicles that he and his supporters were using to monitor the elections. They were about seventy in total.

Tune in next week for Part 2 and find out what happened next.  END.  Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.