PICTORIAL: Police battle protesters

The Police on Monday morning had running battles with residents of Maya in Kyengera town council, Wakiso district.

The residents blocked the Kampala, Masaka highway, protesting the power blackout they have had for the last two weeks.

 The protest started very early in the morning

The residents accused the electricity distributor, UMEME of failure to give them a transformer after the one they had broke down.

The Police came in to calm the situation. However, they were faced with clearing the road as well

 
The Police had running battles clearing the road as the residents returned boulders, logs and old iron sheets to block the road.

 
They had to resort to firing in air and use of teargas to disperse the residents.

 And the melee affected travellers on the busy Masaka road.

 The placards displayed showed they wanted Umeme to do something.

This prompted the OC Nsangi Police station, Anthony Nsada, to blame them for using wrong method to address a genuine issue through a wrong forum. He said they should have used the right channels and condemned the use of violence.

 Officers spent a long time clearing the road