The republic of uganda in the supreme court of uganda at kampala

Violence in Rukungiri:

The second episode narrated by the Petitioner in the same affidavit is his campaign visit to Rukungiri 2nd and 3’ March, 2001. He deponed that he arrived in Rukungiri Town at about 8.30 p.m. in a convoy of vehicles, and was welcomed by many town residents who came out on the streets clapping. Suddenly there was an attack which he described as follows:

“I then saw many soldiers of the Presidential Protection Unit come from all directions wielding truncheons and submachine guns and started beating the people on the road side ferociously causing them to run screaming in all directions. The soldiers then attacked the people in the vehicles of our convoy and some came to attack the vehicle in which I was seated. The policemen who were detailed as my bodyguards had to threaten to open fire in order to stave off this attack.”

After this encounter, the Petitioner proceeded to his village home under police guard. That night many of his supporters who had been attacked in the town incident, stayed in his compound because of fear. The following day he held rallies in several places, but because he sensed that there was tension, and that his supporters were under terrible fear because of heavy deployment of PPU soldiers and LDLJs in their areas, he omitted going to two scheduled rallies, so as to make it possible for the main rally in Rukungiri Town, to end early enough for people to go home before dark. The main rally went off peacefully and ended at 6.10 p.m. Shortly after, while at his home, he heard gun shots from the direction of the town centre and saw people running to his home for safety. The shooting lasted for about 20 minutes. When he drove through the town at about 7 p.m. he found it deserted except for a few people wearing the 1st Respondent’s campaign T-shirts, and about 10 to 12 PPU soldiers who were throwing people onto a truck. During the shooting one Baronda was shot dead, and about 15 people were seriously injured. Many others sustained minor injuries in the incident. Bashaija Richard, Coordinator on the Petitioner’s District Task Force described the said shooting thus:

after the Besigye rally, the PPU soldiers went on a rampage in Town shooting many bullets in the air and at our supporters and killing one Baronda in the process. We had not provoked them in any way. We had not breached peace nor were we even demonstrating but were just walking back from the venue of our candidate’s rally.”

The Petitioner also deponed that the PPU soldiers were deployed in Rukungiri District as soon as the campaigns started, though the President was not there all the time.