Museveni while addressing the country, he said the talk of disappearance and kidnap should be ignored. It can’t happen under the NRM.
President Yoweri Museveni Tibuhaburwa Saturday said that the talk of abrupt capturing of citizens or drone disappearance should be left to pass because it cannot happen under the ruling NRM party.
Museveni made the remarks during a televised address to the nation. He said that he has read stories of many Ugandans who have been forcefully captured in so-called ‘Drones’ and taken to unknown destinations.
But indicated that he is going to do everything in his mandate to ensure that this talk of disappearance is put to an end.
“The talk of disappearance should be ignored. It can’t happen under the NRM. I heard there is quite a bit of stampede of disappearance in the papers. Every Ugandan under the NRM will be accounted for,” Museveni said.
“Security should avail the list of those in custody so that we put an end to the talk of disappearance.”
The president, however, disclosed that the heavy deployment in recent weeks has been due to intended protests from lawbreakers who were planning to create uncertainty during the January elections.
He said that such scares forced them to deploy some elements of the army including CMI and other security agencies to help ensure that there is peace.
“The lawbreakers and the criminals are the ones that forced us to employ some elements of the army to support the police (during elections,” Museveni noted.
“Towards elections, we had new skimmed criminality, the riots. These lawbreakers were planning not to allow the elections to take place. We deployed heavily, and we brought the Comando Unit from Somalia. We defeated a wave of criminality through combined efforts of CMI and other agencies.”
Also, the President said that the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) was trained to defend and protect its citizens and not to violate their rights.
He said most of the people capturing citizens are kidnappers who are just impersonating intending to take advantage of common Ugandans.
“The UPDF is a very disciplined force. When we took over Kampala, many didn’t run away because the NRA was a people’s force. Not a single shot was fired when we took over Kampala. We never touched Uganda House, UPC property,” Museveni added.
“Please, don’t mix us up (UPDF) with such low calibre conduct (kidnaps).The security agencies are taught not to be part of a culture of violating people’s rights with impunity.”
