By Spy Reporter
Kampala: Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, who is the Kyadondo East Member of Parliament, last week lost one of his supporters, who was knocked by a speeding Police truck and he later died at Mulago hospital after medics refused to attend to him.
Hakeem Ssekamwa sustained fatal injuries last week after being knocked by a police patrol vehicle registration number UP 2525, which rammed into Bobi Wine supporters in Wobulenzi, Luweero district, as they returned from Gulu High court Mitooma. Bobi Wine had just concluded a court proceeding in Gulu town when Ssekamwa got knocked. He was rushed to Mulago Hospital, but doctors refused to handle Ssekamwa because he didn’t have the required Shs270,000, hence he died unattended too.
On Saturday evening, Bobi Wine issued a statement about Ssekamwa’s death saying thus;
STILL ABOUT THE DEATH OF ZIGGY WYNE IN LIGHT OF FRESH POLICE STUNTS.
Dear countrymen and countrywomen,
On Wednesday 7th August, 2019, we laid our brother Alinda Michael aka Zigy Wyne to rest in Kashenshero, Mitooma District. On Thursday, 8th August, a team from #PeoplePower laid to rest another comrade – Hakeem Ssekamwa, in Kasana Luweero.
Hakeem was knocked by a police patrol truck (Reg. Number UP 2525). This happened on Tuesday along Bombo Road, as we returned from Gulu for a court session. The officers who were in the truck never bothered to stop and give Hakeem the very much needed first aid, or take him to hospital. Therefore, we are still grieving these two comrades – even as we continue to receive reports of attacks on other comrades around the country. As I speak, our comrade Kibalama Johnbosco is still missing, having been last seen on 3rd July!
Ordinarily, we do not like to engage in back and forth arguments as we would rather keep the focus on the most important thing- the struggle to liberate our country.
However, those who went there brought back a very disturbing report- our comrade was in so much pain, with severe injuries. They also spoke to some health workers at the hospital who indeed said that Zigy was being treated for wounds obtained as a result of severe torture. They made public statements on this, accompanied by pictures depicting Zigy’s condition.
2. The family members further informed our team of how late Ziggy had been receiving threatening messages and calls for some time. Among other things, they indicated that some senior official within the security forces grabbed his land a few years back and every effort he made to regain his land was always met with threats to his life. In fact, late Zigy briefly made reference to the injustice he was facing regarding that land, in his facebook post of April 8th 2017. He concluded it by saying- ‘that is why we go for opposition.”
(https://www.facebook.com/search/top/…)
The family members at that point suspected that it was the cause of his disappearance and torture. They also suspected that Zigy might have been tortured as a result of his strong, professed and unapologetic support for #PeoplePower- knowing what has happened to several of our comrades, some of whom are well known. They further informed us that Zigy had been receiving threatening messages. Indeed, many of the people we closely work this have received threats of all kinds.
3. It will be recalled that late Zigy’s family members as well as neighbors had reported his disappearance to the police many days before! Police did not take action even when stories of torture surfaced- including on the front page of the New Vision paper. It was only after Zigy died on the night of 4th August and we started demanding answers that they suddenly picked interest in the matter and purported to conduct investigations. A day later, they came up with the accident story and declared that they had completed investigations! The question every person must ask is this- if the police claims that it was an accident which was duly reported to them, and stories of torture emerged for over a week, why did they wait to ‘carry out investigations’ until comrade Zigy passed on? Only this shows ulterior motives. Please recall that at the backdrop of all this, Zigy was a legitimate citizen of Uganda, even without talking about his association with me and #PeoplePower. Every citizen must put themselves in Zigy’s shoes and realise that if Zigy was not associated to politics, he would have died quietly and his case forgotten without police even attempting to ask any questions. Even when the family had made statements pointing to the torture of their loved one- a claim of the greatest magnitude! With these facts alone, there was no other plausible explanation on how Zigy ended up in Mulago in the state in which he was apart from what we issued.
In any case, the initial statement released by the police actually confirmed that Zigy was murdered. The citizens had no reason to go with any other thesis!
Their statement which can be found here (https://www.upf.go.ug/police-actively-investigating-allege…/) reads in part, *”This morning a post mortem examination was carried out in the presence of two relatives and the cause of death, indicated as blunt force trauma to the head. The victim had a fracture on the skull, which injured part of the brain; his right hand had cuts on two fingers, classified as defense injuries arising out of a struggle…… The injuries point to a straight forward case of murder.”*
It was only a day after that they changed the narrative and said it was an accident. We are hoping that as promised in that statement, footage will be produced of how he allegedly got the accident, and how he ended up in hospital. Once they are produced, we can assess their authenticity and come to a conclusion.
4. But that was not the only reason. In Uganda today, when you hear that a citizen has been kidnapped, tortured or shot, it does not come as a shock. When every person’s loved one goes missing, the first suspect are some elements within security agencies who have been implicated so many times in the kidnap, torture and even murder of our people. A simple Google search will show you countless victims of each of the atrocities I have mentioned above. For those few cases which have ended up in court, we have indeed seen several operatives convicted for carrying out the most heinous crimes. Unfortunately, the lowest ranking officers are the ones who are normally implicated; and not their bosses who give those orders or actually carry out those unspeakable actions.
I have seen the police parade some two women in trying to discount allegations of duplicity. My comment on that is that this has a history. A vast majority of the citizens of our country will not believe the police even one bit, because of its past record! That is why many take it upon themselves to investigate every narrative of the police! Who does not remember how they used some lady called Joanita Kyakuwa in 2005 to impose rape allegations on Dr. Kizza Besigye? It later came out that the police and other agencies had tried to cook up all sorts of evidence against Dr. Besigye. There are countless examples including many recent ones. For example, when Ssebulime was shot dead on handcuffs- allegedly on a Minister’s orders, the police issued all sorts of fake statements until citizens insisted and they came up to apologise and set the record straight. To date, Ssebulime is yet to get justice! When my colleagues and I were violently arrested and tortured last year, we all saw our police and other agencies quickly assemble guns and present them to the public claiming they had been found in my room! If it was not for mzee Chandia Luiji who dismissed these claims and refused their evil money, I would probably be now convicted of treason! The same people who tortured me came out to deny that I was ever tortured! You all saw pictures of Hon. Zaake and the state in which he was in, but they claimed that he had cut himself, and that he had escaped from their custody. A few months back, a court in Arua rubished all this claims and acquitted Zaake of the bogus charges. Now therefore, it does not surprise me that the citizens of Uganda try to interrogate all narratives by the police- and I believe that by bringing out those pictures depicting a known police officer as the potential alleged victim in this case, they were doing that interrogation. Even today, many are indeed interrogating the various narratives. Our task as #PeoplePower and other forces of change is to remove President Museveni’s government in which all state institutions have lost credibility. The police should be trusted by the wanainchi so that when they make a report, it is an answer to the citizens’ questions. In our case, before Afande Enanga speaks (indeed like his predecessor Kayima and others), the citizens are asking, ‘What has he now come to lie about?’ That is not the image and record our police force should have.
Can I also use this opportunity to once again state that People Power has a leadership. We have a communication structure and our spokesperson is well known. Every word or action spoken or made by citizens in pursuit of their freedom of expression must not be imputed on the movement. Therefore in light of those, parading the two women does not remove doubts on the very likely possibility that Zigy was indeed tortured.
5. My final point is to remind the country that our struggle is not against security agencies in this country. I have said it time and again. Our struggle is for good governance. We are fighting for Afande Enanga as we are fighting for any other citizen of this country. We debunk any narrative that seeks to project us as being out there to cause hatred against police. 99% of the police officers are struggling live every other Ugandan and many of them support the cause for freedom. However, each officer shall be judged by their actions- whether good or bad.
Bro Ziggy, sorry man that I must write about you time and again. But I am sure you are looking at all this, and you know that we would stop at nothing to demand the truth about how your life ended in such a painful way. Continue resting in peace.
Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert
People Power
