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While holding their Tuesday press conference at Besigye’s Katonga-road based office, joint forces of change announced plans to protest on the streets of Kampala over the poor state of roads in the city and also else where in the country.
However, the protests which happened in some places in Nansana and Masaka didn’t take off effectively as planned. They were thwarted by police and army which deployed heavily at Bobi Wine, Erias Lukwago and Besigye’s home to prevent them from moving an inch closer to the city.
The protests were set to deliberately coincide with the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) summit which is taking place at the Munyonyo Convention Centre in Kampala since Monday with several heads of state set to grace the event.
According to Bobi Wine, indeed they planned the protests to catch the attention of the leaders and delegates attending the summit and to send a message to them that the country is in a mess. Speaking to BBC’s Focus on Africa, Bobi Wine it was deliberate but security ended up caging him at his home so is Besigye and Lukwago and police said they’re not quitting their homes until they deem it necessary to do so.
Speaking to media yesterday, Kampala Metropol police Spokesperson Patrick Onyango said the had “taken some measures to stop [him] from instigating some people to hold unlawful assemblies and political demonstrations”.
Bobi Wine however told the BBC that despite the backlash, holding their protests was a constitutional right. He wanted to use the fact that delegates from more than 100 countries are in Kampala for the NAM meetings, to highlight the opposition’s issues with government especially the misrule and torture of opposition supporters.
Asked why demonstrate when the country is hosting such big and important summits, why Bobi wine didn’t attend the conference and share his challenges with the delegates, asked if Bobi Wine asked for permission to hold the street protests, Bobi Wine answered in the negative indicating that it was protesting was his constitutional right.
“Yes we targeted the conference because [NAM] was established to fight for oppressed people of the global South. It was involved actively in the fight against apartheid. We want to send a strong message to the Non-Aligned Movement and remind them that the movement is losing it’s soul”
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