Police in Nakaseke District have arrested 50 supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) after violent protests erupted over parliamentary election results.
The unrest followed the announcement that Charles Nsereko Basajjassubi of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) had been elected MP for Nakaseke South, polling 30,279 votes to defeat incumbent Paulson Luttamaguzi Ssemakula, who received 18,123 votes. In Nakaseke Central, State Minister for Kampala Metropolitan Affairs Kyofatogabye Kabuye defeated incumbent Allan Mayanja Ssebunya of NUP, garnering 13,678 votes to Ssebunya’s 8,178.
Anger over the results led NUP supporters in Kiwoko town to gather at the arch for MP-elect Kabuye and attempt to set it on fire. Protesters also destroyed local chapati kiosks using timber to light fires. Security forces, including UPDF soldiers and police, intervened to disperse the crowd.
Protesters later moved to the outskirts of Kiwoko, where they destroyed an electricity transformer at Butikwa village and damaged four electric poles, cutting power to parts of the area. In Nakaseke town, supporters of Luttamaguzi Ssemakula set fire to a local cinema owned by an NRM supporter and damaged a military vehicle during demonstrations.
Sam Twiineamazima, Savannah Regional Police spokesperson, confirmed that the rowdy protesters had been dispersed and that the arrested youths are now detained in various police stations in Nakaseke pending charges related to property destruction and violence.
