Security forces in Uganda allegedly stormed the home of an opposition lawmaker during Thursday’s election and k!lled 10 members of his campaign team, according to statements made to AFP.
“Ten were k!lled inside my house,” said Muwanga Kivumbi, a senior member of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and MP for the Butambala area, speaking to AFP by phone on Friday, January 16. He described himself as “emotionally broken” by the incident.
Uganda held elections under an internet blackout, with President Yoweri Museveni seeking to extend his four-decade rule and facing accusations from rights groups of “brutal repression” against opposition supporters.
Kivumbi said the shooting occurred after hundreds of his supporters gathered at his home once voting ended. Many fled as security forces entered the compound, but his wife, law professor Zahara Nampewo, said officers fired through the door of a garage where 10 campaign agents were hiding.
Local police spokesperson Lydia Tumushabe gave a contradictory account, claiming that “a group of NUP goons” had planned to overrun and burn a tally centre and police station. She added that “an unspecified number were put out of action” and confirmed that 25 others had been arrested and charged with malicious damage of property.
Kivumbi and Nampewo said security forces removed the bodies from their home, but the couple told AFP they had verified a death toll of 10 at a nearby hospital.
Images from the scene could not be obtained due to the nationwide internet shutdown imposed by the government during the vote.
“Right now I’m anxious because they have redeployed around home again,” Nampewo said. “I was very shaken personally. Seeing fresh bodies. I mean, that is something that cannot easily go away.”
The couple also said there had been heavy security deployment around their residence in the days leading up to the election and that members of their campaign team had been attacked previously.
