Alliance Students Raid Mbarara Vision Offices

By Allan Turyaguma Over 400 irate students of Alliance High School yesterday morning invaded and vandalised The New Vision Mbarara bureau. The office windowpanes were all shattered and a telephone receiver and a sofa-set at the reception damaged in the raid. The students also pelted stones and shattered the windscreen of a Ford Bantam pick-up truck Reg. NO UAB 489G, the official vehicle of the paper’s regional marketing officer, Gershom Agaba. The students ransacked the Orumuri photo library and scattered the pictures before selecting some which they set on fire together with the sideboard’s shutter. The students, who were in their school uniform, were reportedly irked by a story carried by Orumuri, the New Vision’s sister vernacular weekly, under the headline “200 students of Alliance dismissed because of pregnancy” The Orumuri editor, Jossy Muhangi, said the story was researched on before it was published. “I had been left alone in the office when the mob of students invaded and started throwing stones and bottles everywhere. It was a miracle that I escaped unhurt,” Bernard Byarugaba, a reporter for Orumuri, said. The rowdy students went on rampage in Mbarara streets, tearing newspapers belonging to different media houses and beating up the vendors. Araali Kwebiiha, the paper’s agent for western region, said he lost 1,000 copies of The New Vision, 5,500 of Orumuri and 400 copies of Bukedde in the attack. The anti-riot police fired teargas and live bullets in the air to disperse the students. A New vision photographer, Kyomuhendo Muhanga, who was covering the riots as students fought running battles with the police, had his camera damaged by a flying stone. “I saw a stone flying towards me. As I dodged, another hit my camera,” Kyomuhendo said. The Police community liaison officer, Sebastian Komunda, and the Kakoba LC3 secretary for defence, Rajjab Atib, were among those injured in the riots. Atib said he lost his mobile phone and sh18,000 in the scuffle. Mishaki Ayebare, a teacher of Alliance High School, who was allegedly commanding the riot, was arrested with five students: Morodokai Nuwagaba of S2, Ishmael Masereka s4, Moses Byamukama s.6, Shelter Birungi S.5 and Clare Ahereza S.4. The director of the school, Kariisa Nuwagaba, told the Police that he did not sanction the riots by his students. The police said many town traders had reported that they had lost a lot of their merchandise. Ends