Bunyoro kingdom rejects transfer of embattled Mityana DPC

BUNYORO|KITARA|KINGDOM|POLICE

HOIMA - Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom has opposed to a transfer of Mityana District Police Commander (DPC), Alex Mwinemukono to Hoima district.

Andrew Kirungi Byakutaga, the kingdom Prime Minister in a letter dated October 23, 2020, to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Martin Okoth Ochola, says they (the kingdom) cannot host an officer whose career is punctuated by acts of Indiscipline and unprofessionalism.

Mwinemukono is accused of commanding an operation where his juniors fired teargas to disperse a Mbogo Clan meeting last weekend.

Subsequently, Ochola on Thursday pronounced for the transfer of Mwinemukono to his new duty station following a directive from President Yoweri Museveni who ordered the IGP to take action following the incident.

The Hoima DPC, Martin Okoyo was also transferred to replace Mwine in Mityana district, a move that has been rejected by the kingdom.

Police on Saturday used teargas to disperse clan members who had gathered at their ancestral site at Mugulu in Ziggoti Town Council to attend a thanksgiving prayer for their leader, Gajuule Kayiira Kasibante.

Kasibante was the former chairperson of Buganda Kingdom's Bataka Council. As the Holy Mass led by Masaka Catholic Diocese Rtd Emeritus Bishop John Baptist Kaggwa, was underway, the police raided the place and blocked some of the members, including National Unity Platform President and Presidential hopeful, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, from accessing the venue.

The police fired teargas, which left many clan elders, including the clan head, in pain and admitted to a nearby health facility for treatment.

Mwinemukono halted the Holy Mass temporarily under the pretext that the event had not been cleared by security and contravened COVID-19 guidelines.

Byakutaga says Hoima being the seat of Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom, they fear that deploying such an officer with such disciplinary challenges may encourage him to do the same in the kingdom.

The premier has copied his one-page letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen Jeje Odong, State Minister for Bunyoro Affairs, Ernest Kiiza, Minister for Security, Gen. Elly Tumwine, and Hoima Resident District Commissioner, Samuel Kisembo Araali.

"In the interest of peace and stability, we request that you don't bring the said DPC. We recommend that you deploy officers with a good disciplinary record befitting the status of our area," the letter read in parts.

Efforts to get a comment from the Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga were futile.

Meanwhile, a group named ‘Concerned Citizens' led by Ali Babi, the President Hoima City Development Forum, held a press conference at Kolping Hotel in Hoima City on Friday where they demanded that Mwinemukono be retired in the public interest.

Babi said although Bunyoro welcomes everybody regardless of their ethnicity and religious backgrounds, the embattled DPC is unwelcome to the kingdom because of his track record as a notorious officer.

"The constitutional mandates police to keep law and order and secure lives and property but the acts of Mwinemukono clearly confirm that he is violent, unprofessional, biased and disrespectful to religion and elders," he added.

Ausi Balyesiima, a concerned citizen, speaking at the same press briefing, said the actions of the commander against the catholic Bishop is an action against all Clerics.

He said by press time they were gathering signatures to petition the relevant authorities rejecting the transfer of Mwinemukono to Hoima.

Kasim Asiimwe of Kangabaije Advocacy Group in Hoima said Mwinemukono behaved as if he was not trained to handle human beings, adding that a person of his ilk needs to be deployed at a war front.