President Yoweri Museveni shocked NRM MPs who met him at State House, Entebbe when he said that Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi and Mityana Municipality MP, Francis Zaake were tortured because they resisted arrest and fought with security officers.
“Kyagulanyi and my ‘muzukulu’ Zaake fought my officers. That is why they were beaten. The other MPs didn’t fight. That’s is why they were not in a bad shape,” Museveni said.
Museveni was meeting NRM MPs to brief them about the situation in Arua and the protests calling for Bobi Wine and why NRM has been performing poorly in by-elections.
However, some of the MPs were not in the mood to listen. They lashed at the President for nor undermining Parliament and failing to reign on the behaviour of “his soldiers.”
“Every day that passes, journalists are beaten, people are shot and nothing is done. The army and police need to be disciplined,” one MP spoke out.
In his defence, Museveni said that Reuters photojournalist, James Akena who was beaten by security operatives while covering a protest was mistaken for a “petty thief.”
This explanation did not convince the opposition MPs who are now threatening to allow Parliament to sit until the Speaker’s letter to the President is responded to appropriately.