I was not beaten - Nambooze

Dec 11, 2017

"I felt my back crack and I became helpless. I could not walk, stand, sit or lie on my back."

AGE LIMIT | NAMBOOZE

Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze has said she was not physically beaten during the age limit fracas in Parliament, but pressed so hard by highly trained security operatives that she got disabled. She said their actions damaged her nerves.

"I cannot lie that I was beaten, boxed or kicked. The highly skilled men who grabbed me from Parliament used grip gloves to squeeze me with great intensity and pressed their knees on my back," she said.

"I felt my back crack and became helpless. I could not walk, stand, sit or lie on my back. It was like their mission was to sentence me to death in a spell of seconds," she said.

On Saturday, Nambooze appeared in public for the first time since she was hospitalised in India following a fracas in Parliament during protests by a section of opposition legislators against the age limit bill.

She was speaking at the Silver Jubilee wedding anniversary of her campaign manager, Emmanuel Matovu, and his wife, Betty Najjoba, at Kiwanga in Goma sub-county, Mukono district. Matovu is also the Democratic Party chairman for Mukono district. Several party leaders, including the Municipal Mayor George Fred Kagimu, attended the event.

The function started with mass, led by the Vicar General of Lugazi Catholic diocese, Msgr. Richard Kayondo, who represented the bishop, Christopher Kakooza.

PIC: MP Nambooze (second-right) greets the Matovus at their wedding anniversary celebration. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

"We have amidst us a new breed of assassins operating alongside those who want to change the Constitution," Nambooze said.

She was cheered by guests when she said she had stepped out for the first time in an attempt to test herself whether she would be fit enough on Tuesday, when she vowed to join her Opposition legislators to launch another campaign against the removal of the age limit bill from the Constitution.

"I was not sure whether I would be able to stay here this long in high heels and in a busuuti while still nursing surgery wounds, but I told you that we had not gone to steal. We went to defend the Constitution," she said.

"But pray for me that this time they do not go with my head. I have asked the Vicar General to pray for me because I badly need your prayers," she added.

The legislator who was flanked by her husband, Henry Mukasa Bakireke, said something fundamental needs to be done about Uganda's health system because doctors in India carried out the operation as their Ugandan counterparts had recommended.

"But it is because our health system is dead. Otherwise, if our doctors had been empowered, they would have managed my case. How many of you can afford to be taken to India for the same treatment?" she wondered.

Nambooze said the Opposition will not lose hope or focus even if the majority of the MPs pass the bill.

"We shall continue to fight even if they succeed to pass the bill. One day, we will achieve our intended mission of enabling the country to witness peaceful transfer of power," she said.

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