The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
MARCH: MUMBERE’S KASESE ERUPTS
On March 12 what was seen as post-election violence broke out in the western Uganda Kasese district. When it ended up to seven people were reported dead. Police and the UPDF deployed heavily in the area and the King of the Rwenzururu, Omusinga Charles Wisely Mumbere (Cultural leader of the Bakonjo) accused the Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura, of ordering the killing of innocent people in Kasese.
On March 23 news of violence came through again; this time of alleged tribal fighting in Bundibugyo between the Bamba people and the Bakonjo. Up to 17 people were reported killed and police on patrol were allegedly attacked by men wanting to grab their guns. The Uganda Red Cross reported 361 homes destroyed in Bundibugyo and over 2000 people had fled into Bubukwanga camp for Internally Displaced Persons.
On November 26 Kasese returned to news headlines when a combined force of police, army, and other security agencies overran the palace of the Rwenzururu king Omusinga Wesley Mumbere inKasese town in western Uganda. It was the culmination of days of standoff after the king refused an order from President Yoweri Museveni to disarm and surrender his royal guards to government security. The king’s palace was set on fire and over 100 people were killed in the attack and other skirmishes in the area. Mumbere was arrested. On Nov. 29 Mumbere was charged in a Jinja court with the alleged murder of a policeman. Several other charges, including treason and gun-snatching, are soon leveled on him and he is remanded to Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Kampala.
LRA’s Dominic Ongwen on trial at ICC
On March 23: The Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed 70 charges brought by the ICC Prosecutor against Dominic Ongwen. This decision sent the case to a trial. Dominic Ongwen is the first leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in custody at the court.
March deaths
March 26: Up to 27 bodies of victims of drowning were retrieved from Lake Albert after a boat carrying 60 people capsized in strong winds that also left homes and a health centre III in Bulisa without roofs.
March 27: Abel Dhaira, who was a goal keeper for the Uganda national team, The Cranes, and the Icelandic Premier League team IBV Vestmannaeyjar passed on in Iceland.
March 28: Three Christian preachers died in a car accident at Segukku along Entebbe road.
March 28: The former executive director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), Moses Mapesa dies of leukemia in his home district of Busia, eastern Uganda.
