DP warns police on contempt of court

KAMPALA - The Democratic Party (DP) has warned police against any attempt to defy the Constitutional Court ruling on dispersing rallies.

The court on Friday last week nullified some sections of the Police Act and the Public Order Management Act (POMA), taking away police powers to disperse public gatherings.

In the judgment written by Justice Kenneth Kakuru, section 36 of POMA was knocked out and declared unconstitutional on account that it authorizes and legitimises police brutality against innocent citizens.

However, police maintain that it would use other provisions of the law to disperse rallies that faulted guidelines.

Addressing journalists at police headquarters at Naguru in Kampala on Monday,   the Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga stated the police position.

The DP president general, Norbert Mao, at a weekly party press conference in Kampala vowed that the party was ready to go to court to challenge all those provisions that police may use to disperse rallies.

"I want to warn police that that amounts to contempt of court. I thought it was obvious but it seems not to be obvious to police that court orders are bidding.

If they want us to go to court to nullify those provisions, we will do so, so that all the laws they are clinging on can be declared unconstitutional," he said.

According to Mao, the court ruling is a very big relief to the citizens of Uganda who are demanding justice, regime change.

The police should go slow, should not undermine the Constitutional Court, they should abide by the Constitution which is the mother of all laws.