Gen. Henry Tumukunde meets Uganda Police ahead of his presidential consultations
Presidential aspirant former Security Minister, Lt Gen. Henry Tumukunde yesterday paid a visit to Uganda Police ahead of his presidential consultations.
In his remarks, Tumukunde says he highly respects Uganda Police as well as the Public Order Management Act (POMA) which according to him should not hinder his presidential consultations coming up.
“You must relate with Police when it comes to organizing public meetings which are worthy consultations. So we came here to speak to the Police for one clear reason; we want to know if how they understand the law as written, is how we understand it, are we on the same frequency,” Tumukunde said.
Tumukunde is concerned that people always think that anyone seeking to become the President of Uganda must suffer teargas and Police brutality which according to him is wrong.
“There’s also a common view by the public that to become a president of Uganda, there are things you must suffer to graduate. One of them teargas, another one is being thrown on ‘kabangali’ (the Police van), another one is even threatening your life,” Tumukunde said.
“And then the executors according to them are the Policemen and for me, I have been part of security and I have worked with Policemen, so I came to check the circumstances.”
Tumukunde related his story to the hard time he had with Police during his push to have his son elected as MP Western Region and also for the case of Dr Col Kizza Besigye and the Kyadondo East legislator, Robert Kyagulanyi.
“That experience was horrible! So I came to satisfy my mind on many things, have things changed or are they still the same,” Tumukunde said.
Early this month Tumukunde declared his intentions to stand against the incumbent, his former Commander in Chief, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in the coming 2021 general election.
This was witnessed in a letter Tumukunde addressed to the Electoral Commission (EC), notifying them of his intentions to conduct National Wide Consultations in preparation for his nomination as a presidential candidate.
