Uganda was drawn into a back-and-forth of statements between security forces and the opposition when police on Saturday denied reports by Bobi Wine that he had been arrested by the military, claims that allegedly occurred amid pressure on the path to President Yoweri Museveni\u2019s re-election.<\/p>\n
On the eve of the NUP \u2013 National Platform for Unity \u2013 it said that a military helicopter landed near the politician\u2019s residence in Kampala and, by force, he was taken to an unknown destination. Reuters could not immediately verify this information.<\/p>\n
Police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke, during a televised press conference, stated that Wine is at home and free to move about as he wishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is not arrested\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kituuma Rusoke, Reuters<\/p>\n
Wine leveled allegations of widespread fraud during Thursday\u2019s elections, which were held under an internet shutdown, and urged his supporters to protest.<\/p>\n
His party had previously said that he was effectively under house arrest.<\/p>\n
The vote was seen as a test of the political strength of the 81-year-old Museveni and his ability to avert unrest that has swept neighboring countries, including Tanzania and Kenya.<\/p>\n
As of Saturday morning Museveni held a commanding lead with almost 72% of the votes, according to the electoral commission, while Wine trailed by about 24% with more than 90% of the precincts counted.<\/p>\n
Following a campaign marked by clashes at opposition rallies and accusations by international organizations of suppression and intimidation, the vote went smoothly on Thursday.<\/p>\n
But violence erupted in the early hours of Friday in the town of Butambala, located about 55 kilometers southwest of the capital Kampala, according to the police spokesperson and a regional MP who offered varying accounts.<\/p>\n
Local police spokeswoman Lydia Tumushabe reported that \u201crioters,\u201d armed with machetes and organized by local MP Muangwa Kivumbi, attacked the police post and the vote-count centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe security forces responded in self-defense, because these people arrived in large numbers. Police opened fire in self-defense\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lydia Tumushabe, Reuters<\/p>\n
According to Reuters, Kivumbi asserted that the victims were found around 3 a.m. inside his house, where results for his parliamentary mandate were expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey killed 10 people at my house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Muangwa Kivumbi, Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were people in the garage waiting for the results to celebrate my victory\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Muangwa Kivumbi, Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cThey broke the front doors and started shooting inside the garage. It was a massacre\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Muangwa Kivumbi, Reuters<\/p>\n
Kivumbi also said that security forces had previously dispersed crowds outside, but denied that the deaths were the result of clashes between the sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not aware of the incident near Kivumbi\u2019s house, which, she says, was near the police station\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lydia Tumushabe, Reuters<\/p>\n
Reuters could not independently verify the circumstances of the violence at the sites.<\/p>\n
The situation in Uganda remains tense, and international observers are calling for an open investigation and security assurances as the electoral process proceeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uganda was drawn into a back-and-forth of statements between security forces and the opposition when police on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[17768,17769,17770,96,153,4528,17771,2564],"class_list":{"0":"post-28914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uganda","8":"tag-bobi-wine-arrest","9":"tag-election-protests-uganda","10":"tag-kampala-clashes","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uganda","13":"tag-uganda-election-2026","14":"tag-uganda-political-violence","15":"tag-yoweri-museveni"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}