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Angry mob heckles Museveni at crime scene

Sunday September 09 2018
Kirumira

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni at the crime scene where former Buyende District police commander Muhammad Kirumira was shot. PHOTO | DAILY MONITOR

By MONITOR

An angry mob heckled Uganda President Yoweri Museveni when he visited the scene where former Buyende District police commander Muhammad Kirumira was shot dead.

The crowd gathered at the crime scene on Saturday night told the president that they were tired of the frequent assassinations.

President Museveni had arrived at the scene at about 10 minutes to midnight (+3GMT), amidst tight security by the Special Forces Command (SFC).

The crowds that had been made silent by the army started bursting out, one-by-one from different corners, saying they were tired of tyranny and brutal killing of high profile citizens.

“Mzee, see this? We are tired of it. We are tired of you and your men in uniform. We want you to take action. People are getting finished, what will you rule, an empty country?” someone in the crowd shouted.

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SFC swung into action and dispersed the crowds, journalists were ordered to switch of their cameras, and the live coverage of the crime scene was stopped.

About 40 minutes later, President Museveni gathered around a few people, asked them what happened. Two eyewitnesses were brought forward, he ordered the security to put them into his car, and they were dragged in with their shirts off.

Before the president went away, he turned and looked at the people, waved at them and told them, “mwebale nyo” (a Luganda phrase meaning thank you so much).

The already charged crowd did not reciprocate, but instead hurled more complaints as the president moved away.

Gunned down

The people complained that prior to his killing, Mr Kirumira and his father, Mr Abubaker Kawooya, had called on the president for protection.

“Mzee, Kirumira told you that they wanted to kill him, but you didn’t listen to him. His father also approached you about the same but you chose to go quiet on it. Can you tell us who our president is, if you can’t settle all these killings in a country you are leading?” one of the emotional men shouted before he was refrained by the police.

Mr Kirumira was gunned down together with a woman commonly known as Mukyala Ali who operated a Mobile Money kiosk at Bulenga trading centre.

According to eyewitnesses, the incident happened at around 7:10pm but it took a while before people started circulating the news. Police arrived and fired bullets in the air to disperse the people.

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