KAMPALA – President Museveni has changed his earlier narrative on the chaos in the Arua Municipality by-election and claimed that Opposition supporters pelted the car he was moving in with stones, resulting in violence that saw several MPs arrested and one person shot dead.
In an August 31 letter to Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, the President, who had earlier claimed that the luggage carrier in his convoy was the one that was hit by a stone, said the vehicle that was hit was the one where he was being driven in from a campaign venue to board the helicopter.
“It was just after passing the grader that I heard two bangs on my vehicle. I was then informed by my ADC that my vehicle had been hit by projectiles thrown by those groups in the opposition procession. I instructed my convoy to ignore those hooligans and proceed to the helicopter which they did without firing a single bullet,” Mr Museveni’s letter reads in part.
In his first missive addressed to fellow Countrymen, countrywomen and, especially, Bazukulu (grandchildren) the President wrote:
“The elements of the Opposition, including Kassiano Wadri, Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) and others, who stoned our convoy, including my vehicle.
The stones they threw broke the rear glass window of the car, where I put some luggage. That window glass is not armoured. There was no harm to the old man with a hat”.
It would appear the President’s narrative has changed in his letter to speaker Kadaga in which he too claims that Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a. Bobi Wine’s group deliberately blocked his vehicle.
“…on that same last day of campaigns, Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a. Bobi Wine’s group. who, had had a rally in the North West of the town, probably deliberately drove to the West of the town in order to block my vehicles that were taking me to the helicopter that had landed and stayed at Pokea Seminary School. I was surprised to see this procession of the Opposition groups of people walking on foot and on top of vehicles with a road-grader that had been acquired to, maybe, block the road that I was using to get to my destination,” the President’s letter adds.
The President, who was responding to the Speaker’s request to have the Special Forces Command soldiers prosecuted over torturing the MPs, also insisted that he pleased with the actions of the Security Forces in dealing with the menace of rioters and minimizing the loss of life and property.
Two of the MPs – Bobi Wine and Francis Zaake are currently receiving specialized treatment out of the country as a result of the torture they suffered on arrest.