Pay poll violence victims â€" MPs

By Allan TuryagumaMembers of the parliamentary election probe committee want the Government to compensate all the people who fell victim to violence in various elections that have been held in Uganda.“Having heard all that you went through, we shall include in our report the clause that the Government compensates all the victims of election violence,” Augustine Nshimye, who chaired the eight-member select committee that visited Mbarara on Wednesday said.The members said they would ask the Government to work out an arrangement to enable all the victims of election violence get free legal representation in courts.The committee had just heard Johnson Tumusiime’s account of how he was shot in both legs by the driver of former Resident District Commissioner Ngoma Ngime, who contested against Mbarara Municipality Member of Parliament Winnie Byanyima in the June parliamentary polls. The committee and other people present in the municipal council hall were moved and some shed tears when Tumusiime displayed the bullet scars. He said he has become crippled. Isaac Kawooya, who testified earlier, said an army officer forced a shoe into his mouth while Ambrose Muheki showed the committee scars on his head which he said he suffered after a soldier struck him with the muzzle of a revolver.The Mbarara Returning Officer, Hezzy Kafureka, and all the other 12 people who testified, recommended that parliamentary elections be held jointly with the presidential elections to minimise poll irregularities.