KAMPALA – Kyadondo East legislator Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi wine has Wednesday July 18, appeared before Officer in charge of CID central police station, Kampala amidst praise chants from his supporters.
Kyagulanyi in a procession arrived at Central Police Station at 1 pm accompanied by Leader of Opposition Winnie Kizza, Florence Namayanja, Francis Zaake, among others
Kyagulanyi was summoned to appear before OC CID Joshua Tusingwire through Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga to appear on charges of illegal assembly and inciting violence.
Last week, Kampala Metropolitan Police (KMP) spokesperson Luke Owoyesigire told the media that Kyagulanyi would be summoned to appear before police for questioning on allegations that he masterminded the social media ‘illegal’ protests that left a number of police officers assaulted.
Kyagulanyi among others on Wednesday last week held a protest challenging the taxes which they say are unfair and inconveniencing to citizens and unemployed youth.
Police said the Wednesday protest was held unlawfully and some of the protesters assaulted officers.
Opposition MPs in Parliament earlier in the day vowed to press on until government suspends the entire tax on Mobile Money and Social Media.
The MPs who had caucused at Parliament in the Leader of Opposition Winnie Kiiza’s office, said government’s move to retract the earlier position on Mobile Money is a positive move which is a result of the popular resistance on the tax.
Cabinet announced Tuesday July 17 that they had decided to retract the tax on sending mobile money, and that only a 0.5% tax on receiving would be levied
Finance minister David Bahati revealed that government has so far collected Shs7 billion from the controversial taxes on mobile money transactions and social media.
The amount has been collected in less than a two weeks ever since the taxes were effected on July 1
Bahati said that, the 1% on mobile money transactions has seen Shs5 billion collected while Shs2 billion has been collected from the Shs 200 daily paid by users to access social media platforms.
Concerning the president’s directive to refund all those who paid the 1% percent mobile money tax, Bahati says the attorney general is reviewing the possibility of only refunding the charge on deposits.
Government is expecting to collect Shs 284 billion from the over 10 M over the tax users on social media and Shs 118 billion from the new 0.5% withdraw charge on mobile money.
