The Internal Affairs Minister, Kahinda Otafiire has directed police to immediately embark on investigations into circumstances under which opposition politicians led by the National Unity Platform allegedly paraded boda boda accident victims as persons tortured by security agencies.
Last month, NUP paraded several persons in Kenya that they said were victims of torture by the Ugandan government.
During the meeting dubbed ‘Uganda Human Rights Accountability Conference’ the opposition politicians said dozens of their supporters had either been killed or maimed during and in the aftermath of the November 18, 2020 senseless riots, many of whom they paraded before the media.
Speaking during the Police Council on Thursday, Minister Otafiire said the opposition politicians committed treason against their own mother country when they paraded fake victims of torture.
“Some of the people taken for demonstration were victims of boda boda accidents. People took to Nairobi boda bod accident victims and claimed they were victims of torture. That is the integrity of our politicians that some of the people they took were accident victims,”Otafiire said.
Treason
The tough talking Otafiire said he could not allow such “foolery” to continue while tarnishing government’s name.
“We should investigate them and bring them to account. How do you take people who fell down on boda bodas and parade them before international press and say were victims tortured by police and CMI. This is criminal and those people who did it should be brought to book. This is not politics. It has gone beyond the boundaries and become criminal.”
“This is treason. Those who recruited boda boda victims and took them to Nairobi and the victims themselves who accepted to go should be held accountable.”
The Internal Affairs Minister dismissed claims that the victims had been duped, saying they ought to have reported to authorities.
“Let us wait for investigation and make the conclusion but how do you go to a foreign state and start maligning your government in front of foreigners. If you are in cahoots with foreigners to undermine your government, what are you doing if not treason? Are you praying to God?”
The Minister said he has directed the Crime Intelligence Directorate together with the Criminal Investigations Directorate to handle the investigation and bring culprits to book.
NUP reacts
When contacted for a comment, National Unity Platform Secretary General, David Lewis Rubongoya laughed the accusations off.
“I don’t have anything to respond to the minister but rest assured that we even have police reports about the people we paraded. Whatever he says is unfounded. There is one boy from Makerere they have been talking about but police itself released footage confirming a teargas canister had been thrown in his room,” Robongoya said.
He insisted that every person paraded in Kenya was either a victim of torture of abduction at the hands of security agencies.
“Either the minister doesn’t know what he is talking about or was misinformed. The people who went to Kenya are here and we have details about what happened to them. It is them(security) that tortured them.”
“There was no victim of accident at all. We have police and medical reports from Mulago about these people.”
