Police denies firing at Daily Monitor scribe
By George Murumba
30th January 2012:
File photo: Trigger-happy security chap
The Minister of State for Internal Affairs Mr James Baba has said the government has found no evidence to suggest that police officers tried to assassinate Daily Monitor Photo Journalist Isaac Kasamani last week as he covered the fracas that ensured during the walk-to-work protests of last week.
Minister Baba, who addressed a press conference with the Inspector General of Police [IGP] Lt General Kale Kayihura at Uganda Media Centre on Saturday 28th said, “…Police have found no evidence to substantiate claims that a live round was discharged at Kalerwe, Kampala on the evening of Tuesday 24 January 2012.”
In its strongly worded editorial of Thursday 26th January, the Daily Monitor newspaper said, “…We condemn this abhorrent abuse of state power. Tragically, this escalation has been anticipated. Sympathetic individuals inside the security services last year leaked chilling information that anarchists in the Uganda Police Force planned to murder journalists in the field and then blame their death on a stray bullet.”
The paper added that, “…the thuggery which is rife in the Uganda Police Force is symptomatic of the cowboy mentality driving its cadre leadership. It condones such barbarism in the misplaced belief that it has some undefined historical mission to defend the regime by any means necessary…the nastiness which has crept into our previously civil police institution is a chilling and regrettable throwback to dictator Idi Amin’s death dungeons of Nakasero and Makindye, and the killing fields of Luweero, Teso, Acholi and beyond. It must be opposed.”
The government’s denial also followed a string of condemnations by media institutions that work to safeguard press freedom across the world. “…We demand a thorough investigation into the shooting. It is deeply disturbing that our colleague Isaac Kasamani should come under fire from a police van while reporting on the actions of Ugandan security operatives”, said Mohamed Keita, the Africa Advocacy Coordinator of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Minister Baba however said that the government is “most anxious that a comprehensive investigation of these allegations be undertaken promptly”. He also said there has yet been no formal complaint filed with the police. “…Isaac Kasamani has failed to make himself available to give a formal witness statement to investigators”, the Minister said.
The alleged attempt to assassinate the Daily Monitor Journalist came just days after Santos Komakech, a police constable attached to KCCA’s suspended Planning Director George Agaba, gunned down protesters in broad day light during an eviction exercise in Luzira, a Kampala suburb. END: Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
