A People Power Movement member is on the run after being charged with attempting to disarm a security officer and voter bribery during the just concluded Hoima By election.
Currently, friends and family of Hamza Kasibante Alfaz-a staunch People Power supporter don’t know his whereabouts.
In the whole of the campaigning period, the movement led by musician turned politician Robert Kyagulanyi has been at the center stage of the by-election, trying to garner support for Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate Asinansi Nyakato.
Nyakato was trounced by ruling party- NRM’s Harriet Businge Mugenyi amid alleged election irregularities.
Kasibante was arrested on the day of election (26th September, 2019) on accusations of voter bribery and attempt to disarm a police officer.
The youthful politician was kept in police custody for days in Hoima until one of the security heads in the district came for his rescue. He released him because of their family relationship.
However, according to his friend Ritah Nabukenya, after being set free, security operatives kept on trailing the 27 year old before getting intelligence that his life was in danger.
“Besides being our colleague in People Power, Kasibante was one of the election observers for the Hoima by election. He was working for one of the local civil societies and his arrest was orchestrated by Nyakato’s opponents after discovering that he had pointed out some irregularities in the election process. All those charges against him were trumped up,” Nabukenya told this website.
Nabukenya added that on the fateful day, she also survived being arrested by a whisker because she was with Kasibante.
“I tried all I could to get in contact with his people and thank God I managed to get in contact with his wife who with the help of a security head in Hoima got him released,” she recounted.
“After being released, some people kept on trailing him. Now we don’t know where he is. Before disappearing, he told me, he was scared and that his life was really in danger.”
Family speaks out:
A family member who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons said Kasibante disappeared at the beginning of October and currently they don’t know his whereabouts.
“We have tried to search for him everywhere but to no avail. His known phone numbers are off, we really don’t know what happened to our son. We pray that he is still alive,” a teary relative to Kasibante revealed.
People Power asks Police to investigate cases of missing supporters:
The leadership of the pressure group championed by Kyadondo East MP a few days ago called on the Uganda police to duly investigate cases of brutality and missing supporters.
The group alleged that some of its members are missing while others have either been injured or killed.
Its spokesperson Joel Senyonyi tasked the police to investigate cases where some people power leaders and coordinators are being targeted across the country.
Senyonyi told journalists in Kampala that in one of the cases, their supporter Salongo Stephen Lukoma, a Councilor from Lyabaana Sub County in Buvuma district was shot dead by Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) in Buvuma Island recently. Lukoma was killed by a UPDF soldier who was reportedly stopping illegal fishermen in the lake.
According to Senyonyi, in another case, Moses Okot P’Bitek, a Gulu-based lawyer and people power supporter was shot in the limbs by a security guard attached to the Amolatar Resident District Commissioner, while Bosmic Otim, a musician who supports people power in Gulu was injured, still in a scuffle with security personnel.
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