KAMPALA – Arua Municipality Member of Parliament Kassiano Wadri has narrated how he and his colleagues including Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a Bobi Wine were beaten by security forces, including President Museveni’s guards from the Special Forces Command following the fracas that ensured on the last day of campaigns in Arua.
Mr Wadri and 32 others are facing treason charges over allegations that they stoned President Museveni’s car.
Speaking to a local NBS television in Kampala on Wednesday morning ahead of his swearing-in, Mr Wadri denied that he was involved in any stoning of the presidential convoy, saying he did not meet or see the presidential motorcade, adding that the charges were “a premeditated act.”
“We were in totally different areas for our rallies but I think what caused problems for us were the large crowds we had. The NRM [National Resistance Movement] rally only had children and I think that’s what annoyed him, how on earth would anybody harm the president, he’s the fountain of honour,” Wadri explained before being sworn in as Arua MP.
He slammed Special Forces Command (SFC) for unprofessionalism narrating that no one who was arrested by SFC came out the same, “they all had bruises!”.
“We were locked up in a crowded cell on bare cement with a lot of mosquitoes feeding on us every other second, so we really suffered,” Mr Wadri said.
He said that opposition MPs Bobi Wine and Zaake were arrested by the SFC and tortured gravely’.
“We actually couldn’t believe Hon. [Francis] Zaake [Mityana Municipality] was still alive; we had to plead with police to take him to Gulu hospital because he was in the worst state. The SFC people are the worst human beings,” Mr Wadri explained adding “those of us who were harassed and beaten by the police are a little better but the special guards for the president caused immense pain and torture to our people.”
Mr Wadri said while in police custody, they were “barely” given food and that the police chased away well-wishers who had come with food.
However, he praised Uganda’s prison services after they were relocated from the police cell, saying that they had remained “professional and treated them with dignity”.
It was during the last day of the by-election campaign for the West Nile town of Arua town municipality seat that the stoning of a vehicle in the presidential convoy allegedly happened.
