Opposition politicians Norbert Mao and Abed Bwanika have accused the military of parading ‘fake suspects’ in the brutal arrest of Yusuf Kawooya.
Last week, a group of officers violently arrested Kawooya, a member of Mao’s Democratic Party (DP), along Colvile Street in Kampala.
On Saturday, suspects appeared before the army’s disciplinary unit.
But Bwanika and Mao insist the men paraded before the army court are ‘fake suspects’.
Bwanika, the leader of the People’s Development Party (PDP), tasked the army to produce a one Sergeant Muhereza suspected to have commanded the brutal arrest.
“We are concerned that a one Sergeant Muhereza who commanded that operation is now out of the picture,” Bwanika said at a press conference held at Bativa Hotel in Wandegeya, Kampala on Tuesday.
“When the government came to report on who was commanding that operation, they put in a name called Corporal Senkungu.”
Speaking alongside Bwanika, Former Buikwe South MP Lulume Bayiga asked Uganda’s military: “How could you parade a masquerader that he is Muhereza?”
A medical doctor by profession, Bayiga attempted to describe the man he says wasn’t brought before the army disciplinary court.
“The person who aimed at the spleen and the left kidney of Kawooya is pot-bellied. He has a big belly. He is fat and muscular. Other pictures show him holding a pistol. He is well known,” said the former MP.
Enter DP President Norbert Mao
Addressing reporters at a separate press conference at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, Mao said the DP experts were convinced that the commander of the operation had been shielded.
“Our experts were concerned about a man wearing a checkered shirt who they claimed was the man in the video during the violent arrest of Kawooya. You could see that the physique of the two men does not match,” Mao told reporters.
“We have the original video of the men and we can compare with those they have paraded in court and for now, we are convinced that the army is in a massive cover-up operation which we reject and denounce. “
Mao has also tasked the army to produce the officers who tormented the DP member.
“We are challenging the military authorities to produce those men who tortured and arrested Kawooya in public,” he said.
“We don’t accept the video they recorded themselves according to their own arrangement and which they released with the intent of deceiving the general public.”
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