JINJA – The National Unity Platform (NUP) coordinator and aspiring Jinja city Women Member of Parliament, Manjeri Kyebakutika, has been arrested over donning a People Power red beret in public.
Kyebakutika was arrested while addressing the media soon after attending Kyabazinga Gabula Nadiope IV’s 6th coronation ceremony at Igenge palace in Jinja on Sunday.
An eye witness who preferred anonymity said police commanded by the officer-in-charge Jinja Central Police Station, Moses Kamomo, surrounded Kyebakutika, grabbed the red beret off her head and whisked her away to a waiting police patrol vehicle.
Kiira region police spokesperson Abbey Ngako confirmed that Kyebakutika was arrested and detained at Jinja central police station but has since been released.
By press time Kyabakutika was at Jinja hospital nursing injuries allegedly inflicted on her by the arresting officers.
“You can break my bones but my heart is for change and H.E Robert Kyagulanyi is my president,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Renown comedian and Jinja People Power coordinator Hussein Muyonjo Ibanda aka Swengere condemned the arrest, saying it is an abuse of human rights.
“We condemn this behavior by the security operatives which are supposed to protect us but instead resort to human rights abuses. Such structured abuses have no place in the 21st century Uganda,” he said.
