Police on the Spot for Shooting Student
Kyenjonjo police are on the spot for shooting a student while quelling a riot at Maddox Secondary School in Butiiti Sub County in June this year.
Jacqueline Basemera, a senior four candidate was shot on the arm by cops who used live bullets to quell the riot. She spent close to two weeks admitted at Fort Portal Referral Hospital. The shooting of Basemera caused outrage among students and parents, who accused police of using bullets to disperse unarmed students.
Red Pepper Online has learnt that on Monday this week some parents wanted to petition Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General over the actions of the cops but they were stopped by the school administration.
David Musinguzi, a member of the school management says police should have used tear gas instead of using live bullets to disperse the students since they were not armed. Musinguzi says he is surprised that the school authorities are quiet on the matter and yet one of its students could have lost her life.
John Sande, the father of the gunshot victim says the school hasn’t been supportive. Sande, a resident of Kahiura, says the school gave him only 100,000 shillings to treat his daughter. Sande says he spent more than 400,000 shillings on medicine since her daughter was discharged from hospital.
Samson Muhenda, the headmaster Maddox Secondary School says the school will provide more financial assistance to Basemera.
Samuel Abed, the Kyejonjo District Police Commander, in a telephone interview defended the use of the live bullets saying they didn’t have any rubber bullets at the time.
He says the rubber bullets had been taken to Kasese by the anti-riot police to stop a demonstration of Bakonzo youths who were protesting after Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere was barred from travelling to Bundibugyo district for the peace day celebrations. Abed denies Basemera was shot intentionally saying she was hit by a stray bullet.
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Sincerely, our police has a weakness when it comes to cooling down demonstrations. These were students, but why would the police use guns with bullets?! First of they have batoons,these alone were enough to cool down this school demonstration. If this was not enough, then teargas comes in to disperse these unarmed students. But if it was found out that they were may be armed, then live bullets can be thought of, that is if they didn’t have rubber bullets. Samuel Abed, the Kyejonjo District Police Commander should infact be arrested, this excuse that it was a stray bullet is not enough explanation to convince the public that it was not an intentional shot.