Police warn opposition against tainting Museveni’s image

By Wesley Spartan

Hours to this year’s Martyrs Day fete, police have said the opposition are planning to disrupt the celebrations with the aim of tainting “President Museveni’s image” among the public.
Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango told journalists at the central police station in Wakiso that the force had got intelligence information that opposition youth were planning to distribute fliers and posters to pilgrims, especially foreigners.
Declining to name the suspected schemers, Onyango warned that the opposition would face the law if they continued with their alleged move, urging the public to refuse the printed material.
Onyango added that the police were hunting for the youths who he said had started distributing the print materials in bars and restaurants.
The posters are an alleged product of the opposition’s recent campaign electoral reforms campaign dubbed the Citizen Reform Now (CIREN).
But city lord mayor Erias Lukwago, one of the brains behind the CIREN campaign, told The Observer that members of the CIREN pressure group were not behind the alleged protests. He however could not rule out other people organizing the protests, arguing that it was their right to express discontent.
Martyrs Day is commemorated every June 3, in memory of a group of 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic converts who were executed between November 1885 and January 1887 on orders of King Mwanga II of Buganda.