Security on Tuesday surrounded National Unity Platform (NUP) offices in Kamwokya to block party president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu from taking a petition to the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF).
Kyagulanyi had earlier told reporters at a press conference that he'd written a petition to the CDF, Gen. David Muhoozi demanding the immediate release of his party supporters who were arrested after the January 14 election. In the petition also copied to the minister of Defence Adolf Mwesige, Kyagulanyi calls for the unconditional release of those arrested on election-related charges.
However, when asked whether he had an appointment with the CDF, Kyagulanyi said he didn't have to because public offices should be open to the public all the time. Police ordered Kyagulanyi out of the vehicle driven by NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubingoya before he was forcefully driven to his home in Magere by a joint security team of the army and the police.
Speaking to reporters before they drove out of the premises, Rubongoya said Kyagulanyi had no intentions of personally taking the petition to the CDF. He said other party leaders led by Dr Lina Zedriga, the NUP vice president for northern Uganda would deliver the petition.
This is not the first office that Kyagulanyi has gone to try and have his more than 400 supporters arrested from different parts of the country released. Last week, Kyagulanyi presented a statement to parliament calling for the unconditional release of his supporters, while last month he petitioned the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights to intervene in the matter.
Meanwhile, Kyagulanyi has also called upon the government to lift the nighttime curfew which runs from 9 pm-5:30 am, arguing that there is no causation between the spread of COVID-19 and the crippling curfew.
The curfew was declared in the country last year as a means to stop the spread of COVID-19. Initially, it was starting at 7 pm-6 am but was later revised as the government started relaxing the lockdown. However, when almost all restrictions were lifted, curfew remained intact to limit night interactions.
Kyagulanyi said all that the curfew does is cripple people economically. He said if the government doesn't do away with the curfew, they will have no option but to call upon people to demonstrate against it; as according to him, it's the only language that the government understands.
Kyagulanyi also used his address to dispute claims by the president over the weekend that NUP cheated during the January 14 general election. On the contrary, Kyagulanyi said, it was Museveni's party NRM with support from security organizations and the Electoral Commission that engaged in election malpractices. He challenged Museveni to agree to a rerun since also believes that the election was neither free nor fair.
Whereas Museveni previously said the January 14 polls were the most cheating free in Uganda's history, in his Sunday address he said everybody in the country knows that there was massive cheating done by Kyagulanyi and his people.
Kyagulanyi last month petitioned the Supreme court to have Museveni's election victory annulled only to withdraw the case after accusing the judges of bias.
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