Bobi Wine meeting hangs in balance

MEETING

Kyadondo East Member of Parliament, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine's consultative meeting at Pope Paul Memorial Hall in Ndeeba in Kampala hangs in balance after the Uganda Police said he had not harmonized the event with the law enforcers.

Kyagulanyi and his People Power pressure group, according to the police spokesman, Fred Enanga, was supposed to engage the police in a harmonization meeting to discuss details of the event, which he said had not been fulfilled.

On February 14 Kyagulanyi wrote to the Uganda Police Force, the Electoral Commission (EC), and Local Council chairman of Pope Paul Zone in Ndeeba, Rubaga Division plus the police authorities notifying them on the meeting.

The meeting is scheduled to take place on February 24, which would be the first of it's kind since the Police foiled his earlier attempts to hold consultative meetings in different parts of the country.

But during a weekly press briefing at the Police headquarters in Naguru on Monday, Enanga stated that the Police director of operations had written to Kyagulanyi on the proposal to streamline the conduct of the consultations.

He said this was in fulfillment of a requirement under Section 3 of the Presidential and Electoral Act and reminded him of the meeting of all stakeholders that was recently chaired by the EC chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama.

"In the meeting, his (Kyagulanyi's) delegation made 10 proposals on how the conduct of the consultations can be streamlined. He was guided on how to formally communicate the said proposals to the EC and the Police," Enanga stated.

He added that after communicating his proposals, a harmonisation meeting was supposed to take place between Kyagulanyi's team and the Police, which he said ‘has not happened up today'.

"But he (Kyagulanyi) has gone ahead to indicate his next consultative meeting without harmonising these other concerns that were raised, we are hopeful that the organisers will take note," he said.

According to Enanga, it is up to the organisers to approach the Police and show how they intend to conduct the meeting, ‘not just dropping a letter'.

As part of the requirement, according to Enanga, Kyagulanyi must ensure that the venue, the number of people attending, the ushers, the parking space and other facilities are included in the plan.

"We are waiting for them to come up with all these requirements," he said.

The People Power spokesman, Joel Ssenyonyi, however, said that they had fulfilled one of the requirements and written to the Police notifying them about the coming meeting at Pope Paul Hotel.

He acknowledged that according to the agreement with the EC, they were supposed to sit with the Police and agree.  

"So we are waiting for them to invite us to talk about the new phase, that is why we wrote to them ten days before the meeting, scheduled for February 24," he said.