Emmy Ssemugabi, the LC III chairman of Luweero Sub County has dragged Police to Uganda Human Rights Commission-UHRC for alleged mistreatment and brutality. He accuses police of using excessive force and beating him up on Thursday last week while dispersing angry motorists who were protesting the murder of their colleague Bracio Kasule.
Ssemugabi says that he pleaded with the cops that he was not part of the protestors in vain, as they landed kicks, blows and slaps leaving him with bruises and a dislocated arm. A medical report from Kasana Health IV center signed by in charge doctor Agaba Byamukama shows that Ssemugabi sustained severe bruises on the arm and body. The LC 3 chairperson says that he cannot carry out his office due to the injuries he sustained in the brutal police attack.
He explains that he tried to petition Samuel Bamuzibire, the Luweero District Police Commander to investigate and prosecute the implicated officers but he instead covered them up. He suspects that the police officers targeted him because they want to humiliate him before his subjects.
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Ssemugabi says that he is not interested in the apologies from the police and wants the Uganda Human Rights Commission to investigate the implicated officers and bring them to book. He also wants the commission to find police guilty of using excessive force against unarmed civilians and order Uganda Police to compensate him for the injuries and time he has lost while nursing wounds.
Samuel Bamuzibire, the Luweero District Police Commander neither denies nor denies the allegations by the LC 3 chairperson against his men. Bamuzibire says that he is investigating the incident but says it is tricky because the implicated officers are unidentified.
The 2011 Uganda Human Rights Commission report released this year, ranked police as one of the top agencies involved in human rights abuses Meddie Ssozi Kagwa, the Commission chairperson said that they had received 1021 complaints in 2011, 34 percent of which were human rights violations committed by the police force.
