Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police has ordered investigations into all incidents where police fired teargas to disperse Walk to Work protestors.
Kayihura has appointed Okoth Ochola, Assistant Inspector General Police to head the investigations. According to Kayihura, the investigations will cover places such as Masaka, Kampala, Mbale, Mukono and Gulu amongst others where the protests took place.
Speaking to journalists at Kampala Central Police station this afternoon, Kayihura said that the investigations are aimed at establishing whether police used excessive force and whether some cops misbehaved while handling the protests and actions of some protestors.
He said that after investigations police will take corrective measures where mistakes were committed. In what appeared to be a defense for his officers, Kayihura said that many of the cops don’t know how to use teargas and are learning on the job.
He said that it is because of this that he ordered for the use of less tear gas while quelling protests. Kayihura also defended Gilbert Arinaitwe; a police detective accused of brutalizing Kizza Besigye, the FDC president during his arrest last week, saying that officers are allowed to use force when suspects refuse to cooperate.
He explained that during the arrest Besigye locked up himself in his car forcing Arinaitwe to smash the windows of his car using a pistol to arrest him. Kayihura says that police is reviewing to ascertain whether the actions of Arinaitwe was lawful.
Video footage shot at Mulago roundabout during the arrest of Besigye last Thursday show Arinaitwe and another hooded man who has been disowned by police, smashing Besigye’s car window with a hammer.
They later spray Besigye with conspicuous amounts of pepper spray before forcing him out of his car and bundling him onto a rusty police pick up. The video footage drew uproar from opposition members and sections of the public leading to protests that rocked Kampala and several other parts of the country on Friday last week.
