KAYUNGA: Mityana Municipality Member of Parliament (MP) Francis Zaake and National Unity Platform candidate Harriet Nakwedde were on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, beaten up by security agencies during the last day of campaigns in the by-election for the Kayunga District chairperson seat.
Witnesses said that two Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) squeezed the vehicle of MP Zaake before a soldier at the rank of Colonel dragged him out at Total Petrol Station in Kayunga.
“It was sort of a movie. Guys played it rough but interestingly, unprovoked. Everyone saw this happen at Total Petrol Station in Kayunga,” Dan Mugambe, an aide to the MP, said. He added that after Zaake was pulled out of his car by the unidentified Colonel, another soldier reached for their pickup truck car from where he fetched sticks.
“They beat him all over the body, some concentrating on the head…the MP was in the company of five others but I remember the candidate (NUP candidate Nakwede) was also badly beaten,” Mugambe narrated, revealing that the Colonel stepped on Zaake’s stomach while others beat him up.
The incident occurred towards noon in Kayunga Town.
“It was horrific, the guys pointed guns at us. You would think it was your last moment,” another witness, preferring anonymity, said.
Zaake’s wife Bridget Namirembe said she was told that her husband’s security team pleaded with the soldiers to let him leave in vain.
Zaake’s vehicle was damaged and the front bumper pulled off.
He was taken to the Al-Shaf clinic in Kayunga Town from where he was transferred to Rubaga Hospital in Kampala. Dr. Brian Mumbere, a doctor at the hospital, said the MP suffered a mild head injury, a fracture on the left arm, and soft tissue injury.
“More conclusions will be arrived at after the CT scan,” Dr. Mumbere said. The MP was admitted to the surgical ward.
MP Zaake arrived in Kayunga in the morning in a convoy of three vehicles. He was moving in a white Land cruiser, registration number E4BUTEBI. He had formed part of the advance team of National Unity Platform (NUP) president Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, who was expected in the district to campaign for the party candidate, Harriet Nakwedde.
On arrival in Kayunga, Zaake met the campaign team of Nakwedde. When it emerged that Bobi Wine had been placed under house arrest at his home in Magere, Wakiso District, it was resolved that Zaake presides over the final campaign rallies. Zaake and Nakwedde set off from the campaign office in the same vehicle, only to be intercepted along the way.
Yesterday, the road to Kayunga had nearly ten checkpoints but Zaake managed to maneuver through because he was not using his official car provided to him as a commissioner of Parliament.