The lord councillors were on Friday arraigned before Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s court presided over by grade one magistrate Sanula Nambozo who read to them one offence of inciting violence.
Court heard that on Thursday, February 3, the 14 councillors and others still at large, incited members of the public to demonstrate violently against the officials of KCCA by reason of their office to remove street vendors from the streets of Kampala city.
According to the director of public prosecutions (DPP), the crime was committed along Allen Road in Kampala Central, Kampala district. However, the suspects who appeared in court wearing white t-shirts with a picture of a hawker being removed from the street and with the inscription “Omutembeyi Simuyekeera” [a hawker is not a rebel] denied the charges.
Through their lawyers led by Erias Lukwago who also happens to be their political head as the lord mayor and Kenneth Paul Kakande, they asked to be released on bail on grounds that the charges against them are bailable and that they are representatives of thousands of people in Kampala.
Lukwago noted that KCCA is in the process of discussing its budget and the speaker and her deputy are among the accused persons therefore if remanded, there will be a crisis and the council will be nonfunctional.
He added that the councillors were subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment in the course of effecting the arrest which is a violation of their fundamental rights. According to Lukwago, all the accused persons were beaten, humiliated, had their clothes torn and many needed to seek medical attention to examine the extent of the injuries suffered.
One of them identified as Bitaano presented an exceptional ground for having a baby who is breastfeeding and is only 6 months.They presented 30 sureties who included fellow councillors, relatives and friends whom they told court were substantial.
However, in response, the prosecutor asked court for more time to respond to the documents presented by sureties, saying that time had gone since it was already 6 pm past the court working time.
Lukwago asked court to dismiss the prayer by the prosecutors as it was “aimed at defeating justice” for they are the ones who delayed court saying they first went to City Hall Court thinking that it was where the accused persons would be charged, only to bring them to Buganda Road court when it was late in the afternoon.
But in her ruling, the magistrate agreed with the prosecutors and said she equally needed more time to write her decision. The councillors were accordingly sent on remand to Kigo and Kitalya Mini Max prison until February 9.
On Thursday, after a council meeting, the councillors went to Allen Street and started protesting against KCCA’s intensified operations against street vendors and hawkers in Kampala under their Smart City Campaign aimed at decongesting the city.
The operation has since left some vendors jobless due to confiscation of their goods and others are trading from Usafi and Segawa Market where they complain of poor sales.
As a result, the councillors laid a protest saying that the actions to remove vendors was illegal because in 2017, the council resolved to allocate Ssebaana Kizito, Allen, and Kafumbe Mukasa roads to street vendors to operate but the technocrats wing ignored it.
It is against this background that the councillors who all belong to the opposition National Unity Platform protested and were arrested and held at Central Police Station in Kampala where they spent a night.
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