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Police warns event organizers
Give prior notice to avoid ‘sabotages’
Police spokesman Emiliano Kayima
Police has warned all event organizers and promoters that they must involve them in preparations to avoid the possibility of having such events canceled.
Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima said: “We are entering the festive season where there are many festivals all over the country and a lot of events organizers are in serious business. However I am reminding all event organizers to always keep police in their program in order to avoid sabotages while they are doing their business.
He added: “We need to jointly work together in order to address emerging security issues for example handling cases of theft, assaults, affray, possible terror attacks and control of traffic jam.”
Kayima made the remark in the wake of public anger about the way the police blocked the singer cum politician Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, when he staged a concert in at Max Hotel in Kiryandongo last Saturday Nov 18.
Afterwards, Bobi Wine issued a statement in which he decried the unfair treatment by Uganda Police Force because of his political stand.
“Dear fellow artistes, I write to you today as your fellow artiste and as someone who has fought tooth and nail with you to promote the entertainment industry in Uganda. I believe that all of us are seeing the injustice meted out on me because some of the people in power in this country are not happy about what I sing,” he said.
However Kayima responded by saying that: “Bobi Wine wanted to have a procession with his fans but there was no contingent plan to secure such event. This is not police’s intention but the organizers of this event did not involve the police at the beginning.
So, in order to secure people, we had to call it off. This is not politics at all but we followed what we have always told organizers of events to involve police and notify us as early as possible. If any concert doesn’t involve police it’s illegal and police has all the authority to call it off and that is what police did.”
According to Kayima police is to work vigorously on anyone who will hold any public event without police notification as per the Public Order Management Act (POMA) .
Kayima added that the police engaged Bobi Wine peacefully and ‘understood our point of view and called it off.’
Since joining politics, Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a Bobi Wine says he has seen 10 of his music shows canceled by Uganda Police Force. Also, he says that several of his songs have been banned from playing at concerts and radio stations.
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