By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Police in Uganda have taken into custody, a member of the parliament and close ally of opposition leader Bobi Wine, in connection with the role he allegedly played in election-related violence last week in the east African country.
Muwanga Kivumbi, a deputy leader of Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) is accused of organising attacks on a police station and a vote counting centre after his party lost, an allegation the NUP has denied.
The police claim seven people were killed in the incident, but the lawmaker has denied this, instead says 10 people were killed at his home as they waited for parliamentary election results.
Kivumbi would be “arraigned before court in due course”, the Uganda Police Force said in a post on X on Thursday.
“His arrest is in connection with recent incidents of political violence,” it added.
Kivumbi’s arrest follows tensions after last week’s elections in which President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected for a seventh term.
During his victory speech over the weekend, Museveni warned opposition figures including Kivumbi of coordinated plans to attack polling stations.
He said seven people were shot dead by police after groups of alleged opposition supporters, armed with machetes, attempted to carry out violent attacks in Butambala district outside the capital, Kampala.
Wine, Museveni’s closest challenger and who is in hiding after fleeing a raid on his house after the elections, has denounced the results as “fake”, citing electoral fraud.
He has also alleged that there was “silent massacre” under way and a crackdown targeting political activists.
On Tuesday, he posted on social media that more than 100 people had been killed in election violence, without stating evidence.
This came after Uganda’s army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also Museveni’s son and his potential successor, said the security forces had killed 22 opposition supporters during poll-related violence.
Since the election, Ugandan authorities have reportedly arrested dozens of youths on various charges linked to election-related incidents in Kampala.
