KAMPALA – The Ugandan Ambassador to Burundi Rt. Major General Matayo Kyaligonza has been dragged to the High Court Civil Division by a journalist seeking to be paid Shs340millions damages for a cold and an ill-treatment incident when the Ambassador together with his 2 guards assaulted him while he was on duty.
Mr. Deogratius Peter Otai a station manager of Magic FM which is an affiliate station of the National Broadcaster (UBC) contends he recorded and shared on media social networks a video showing Kyaligonza with his 2 guards assaulting a female traffic officer Esther Namaganda on February 24, 2019, at Seeta round-about in Mukono district.
Mr. Otai has co-filed his petition with the Uganda Journalist Association (UJA) against Kyaligonza, his 2 guards; CPl Peter Bushindiki and John Robert Okurut and the Attorney General demanding that he is compensated for the violation of his fundamental rights to torture, ill-treatment and abstraction from executing his journalistic duties.
According to the court documents, Otai says he was shocked to see the 2 guards who were dressed in a full UPDF military attire and Kyaligonza slapping and cocking a gun to Namaganda who was on duty and this is when he took out his phone and started recording the incident.
That however when the 2 guards saw him, they confronted him demanding to know who he was to which he introduced himself as a journalist working UBC.
He states that he was slapped across his left cheek and ear that momentarily numbed his hearing senses and caused him excruciating pain.
Mr. Otai says that as if that was not enough one of the guards went ahead and swung a kick at his arm with his rugged military boots that then slid down his body, bruising his thigh in the process
Mr. Otai and UJA now through their lawyers if Kiiza and Mugisha company advocates are seeking for the court’s declaration that Kyaligonza’s actions including physically assaulting, verbal torture and threatening to injure the journalist amounted to an infringement of his rights and freedoms protected by the constitution.
He’s also seeking an award of Shs340million as general, aggravated and punitive damages, to be paid to him over the psychological torture, stress, inhumane among other human rights violations he suffered.
