Civil society decries electoral violence

Police on the ready to crush violence during campaigns

Civil society leaders in Eastern Uganda have condemned what they described as rising levels of violence in elections in Uganda.

Contained in a 2016 civil society New Year message entitled, the civil society leaders say that 2016 should be a year for discussing peaceful and sober debates rather than resorting to violence.

Delivering the message to the media in Jinja recently the offices of the First African Bicycle Organization (FABIO) the group’s Executive Director, Patrick Kayemba observed that Uganda is at the cross roads regarding democratic transfer of power.

The civil society expressed concern that there are new corruption scandals emerging yet they have for the last three year condemned the vice through the black Monday activism.

“As we decried the ramifications of the CHOGM scandal and pension scandal, we were hit by the new scandal in the road sector in the Katosi case of 2015, the standard of the standard gauge railway is still blurred,” read part of the message.

According to Kayemba, all civil society activists should rise up and put pressure on candidates to

condemn acts and words of election violence in order to create avenues for common understanding.

The Civil Society warning comes hot on the heals of several reports that have linked the police as well as some presidential candidates to violence.

The disappearance of Independent Presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi’s aide Christopher Aine, has also been linked to the fighting between NRM and Mbabazi’s Go Forward supporters in Rukungiri more than a month ago. President Museveni, the NRM candidate in the race vowed to bring all those involved in the fighting to book.

Last week however, rather than prosecuting those who engaged in the violence, over 100 men who declared they had participated in beating up NRM supporters on behalf of Mbabazi, were welcomed by NRM in Ibanda.

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