Dictator Yoweri Museveni addresses a group of crime presenters
Angry residents of Nyakaguruka village, Rugando Sub County in Rwampara Mbarara district on Monday engaged the police in running battles as they protested the murder by police crime preventers of a fellow resident.
Last week, crime preventers allegedly clobbered David Muganzi, 30, a charcoal seller in Kisenyi Cell – Mbarara Municipality, to death during a security operation at night.
While returning from a party in Kisenyi at about 1am, Muganzi relatives say, their relative was arrested by crime preventers attached to Mandela Police Post in Kakoba Division of Mbarara Municipality who then asked him to cough Shs 20,000. Failure to give them the money incensed the reportedly drunken crime preventers to pounce on Muganzi, leaving him unconscious.
The father of four children and husband to two wives would later be rushed to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital where he succumbed to internal bleeding and multiple wounds.
Muganzi’s relatives also claimed that police had threatened them – telling them to report that Muganzi had been knocked down by a speeding motorcycle.
Three crime preventers and two police officers would then be arrested after Muganzi’s relatives contacted the local Police Professional Standards Unit. But the suspects’ detention would not last longer.
The release of the suspects infuriated the residents who declined to collect Muganzi’s body from the mortuary. Police would later dump the deceased’s body at his home in Kinoni
on Saturday evening further incensing the residents who blocked the Mbarara-Ntungamo road until police fired teargas to disperse them.
To calm the residents, Mbarara DPC Jaffar Magyezi promised to give the family Shs 1m to help in funeral arrangements and Shs 2.8 to clear medical bills.
That seemed to placate the residents until Monday when DPC Magyezi refused to give relatives the authentic autopsy report, causing more confrontation between cops and residents.
Mbarara Resident District Commissioner Capt. Martha Asiimwe intervened with the copy of the post-mortem, an apology and Shs 1m to help with funeral expenses.
