Owing to the death of Muhammad Ssegirinya who was MP for Kawempe North, Electoral Commission released an electoral road map to find a new MP for the area and it was yesterday that voters went to the polls to cast their vote.
Birthed and baptized with bloodshed and brutality by security organs especially the hooded JAT commandos, the process has been widely condemned by several actors including church leaders who urged government even to abolish elections since it couldn’t stand the competition.
The NRM candidate Faridah Nambi was on another side campaigning peacefully and even making processions in roads while the NUP candidate Luyimbaazi Nalukoola faced the brutal hand of security leaving several of his supporters injured and hospitalized.
As the voting drew closer, the army heavily deployed tankers, patrol cars with fighter jets hovering above Kawempe North in an election which was meant to be peaceful. At some polling stations, armed tankers were even seen inside the poling stations. This instead scared away voters with only less than 50,000 out of 180,000 turning up to cast their vote.
The tally centre was placed at Makerere University and at some point, cases of changed declaration forms propped up where NRM’s candidate was having results beyond the voters at some polling stations and majority of these DR forms were put aside.
In the end, Nalukoola who had earlier taken a lead at over 70% of the polling stations was declared winner with 17764 votes, followed by NRM’s Faridah Nambi 8593 votes. Hanifah Karadi polled 381 votes, Luwemba Luswa Muhammad 240 votes and Mukiibi Sadati alias Kalifah Aganaga of FDC 239 votes.
The other candidates including Mutazindwa Muhamood got 186 votes, Musiitwa Ismail of PPP got 39 votes, DP’s Kasacca Henry Mukiibi got 100 votes, Moses Nsereko got 32 votes while late Obote’s son Engena Maitum Edward Stanley polled 22 votes.
Many political actors have clearly casted a shadow of fear and anxiety revealing that what has happened in Kawempe mirrors what exactly will happen in the general election and nothing is done, the country may experience bloodshed in polls that are meant to be peaceful.
Several media houses were forced to even withdraw their teams from the field in Kawempe North after the military descended on journalists beating them, confiscating and destroying their gadgets and even arresting some and releasing them without any charge. Journalists’ bodies have since announced full brown blackout on all security organs never to cover their events until further notice.
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