Kasokoso residents battle Police over arrested colleagues

By Andrew Ssenyonga

Violence broke out this morning at about 7:00am at Kasokoso, Kireka, a suburb of Kampala, after residents engaged the Police in running battles protesting the arrest of three men. 

The arrested are Musa Sekigudde vice-chairperson in charge of security in Kasokoso, Umar Muyanja, the mobilisation secretary for Kireka B and Peter Walulya a resident of the same village. 

In the fracas that followed the standoff this morning, the Police fired live rounds into the crowd injuring six people who have been rushed to Mulago hospital with bullet wounds. Scores other sustained minor respiratory difficulties after the Police fired tear gas into their houses. 

One of the residents who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Police was forced to take the hard line after “some residents threw stones resulting in the damage of a Police cars and retreated into houses”, he said.  

The area Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Nganda, who had earlier spoken with the residents said he would do everything in his power to have the trio released from Police custody. 

The residents of Kasokoso have over the last two weeks been locked in heated arguments with the Police and National Housing and Construction Corporation (NHCC) over the ownership of a strip of land, which NHCC claims ownership that the residents dispute. 

Last week residents took up arms against their area mayor and set his car on fire.