Mengo officials charged with sedition

By Vision Reporters

TWO of the three arrested Mengo officials, Medard Lubega and Betty Nambooze, were yesterday charged with sedition at the magistrate’s court in Nakawa and released on bail. The third, Peter Mayiga, was not brought before the court. He had been released on Police bond earlier in the morning.

Lubega and Nambooze denied the charges before Chief Magistrate Deo Nzeimana. The two are accused of making seditious statements intended to incite hatred against the President in different radio programmes on CBS radio, Twejjukanye, Agafa e Mengo and Crossfire.

They were represented by 11 lawyers, led by Apollo Makubuya, the Buganda Attorney General and Erias Lukwago. The prosecution was led by Jane Okuo Kajuga.

There was tight security outside the court perimeter fence.

According to the State, during the July 13 talk show ‘Twejjukanye’, Nambooze said the President uses food as bait and that he is an old man who uses radio licenses to gag young people.

Lubega allegedly said Museveni’s war against Mengo was against the entire Buganda Kingdom as you cannot divorce the Kabaka from the kingdom.

He is also alleged to have called the school fires a deliberate attempt to destroy schools in Buganda, bring down education standards and kill Buganda’s children.

Earlier, Lukwago and Makubuya tried in vain to have the Court throw out the charges, saying their constitutional rights had been abused. “Buganda Road Court issued orders to release them immediately and unconditionally but the order was defied with impunity by the State…,” Lukwago said.

Makubuya wanted court to force the State to release the evidence and the list of witnesses. He further asked the court to nullify the charges saying the State breached the Constitution when it re-arrested the suspects after the Court ordered for their immediate release. He asked the Court to alternatively refer the matter to the Constitutional Court for interpretation.

But state lawyer Kajuga objected to the application, saying the accused were released unconditionally after the court order and arrested again on different charges. She also objected to the application to disclose the evidence and the witnesses, arguing that it could jeopardise the case and the safety of the witnesses.

The magistrate turned down the applications saying the defence lawyers had not given evidence of the rights violations.

The sureties for Nambooze were Kaddumukasa Ssozi, Mityana South MP; Issa Kikungwe, Kyadondo MP and James Mukiibi of CBS radio. Those for Lubega were Joseph Mutebi Balikuddembe, Busiro South MP; Mathias Mpuuga, the Mengo Minister for Youth and David Ntege, the clerk to the Lukiiko.

The suspects were granted court bond of sh2m not cash and each of their sureties were bound by the same amount. Several DP supporters, especially women, cried on seeing Nambooze being brought to the Court. One offered her a rosary. After the ruling, some supporters tried to sing the Buganda anthem in the courtroom. But they were cut short by court orderlies who told them that they were disrupting court sessions and would be charged with contempt.

Later, thousands of Baganda loyalists thronged Bulange to welcome Nambooze and Lubega. Mayiga, who was released earlier in the day, had gone home and did not attend the celebrations.

Jubilant Baganda chanted praises for the Kabaka. “We shall not abandon you, our King, and we shall not accept to be intimidated”. They sang the new anti-Land Bill song “Akaalo ka Buganda Kadda Kaalo Kaali Nnyiko” (Buganda is a village of ages with a rightful owner).

The Mengo minister for royal visits, Kabusa Mukasa, declared the two officials Buganda’s heroes “who have been tortured not because of their personal faults but because of voicing out the aspirations of the kingdom.” He congratulated them upon winning the “first phase of the battle.

“What you see today will pass away like wind. Buganda never dies but its enemies have always miserably died.” When Medard Lubega was invited to address the crowd, he spent minutes waiting for the ululation to end. “We have come back here to report on duty so that we begin from where we ended”, he said. “No matter what they do, we shall not fear.”

Betty Nambooze, who claimed she was very ill, was also welcomed with loud ululation as some shouted “Yooyo Madam Teacher waffe.” She, too, vowed not to give up the struggle.

“You cannot love Uganda if you have not loved Buganda first. This is the same message I have been conveying to the Batooro and Bakonjo while I was in detention in Bundibugyo.”