About 4 rogue Police offers are on the run following a Monday shooting of a three year old girl killed and the mother wounded. The suspect names as Patrick Ewang, Hassan Mityaba, Mandela Richard and Ivan Chamutai—were thought to be members of the Flying Squad, an elite police unit. They shot dead Viola Nakuwuka and injured her mother, Diana Nabakooza, and another resident, Ivan Kito, 23, on Monday Conor Gaffey said.
According to BBC, the four officers were not on “official assignment” and the motive behind the shooting is unclear.
The use of bullets carelessly in some African countries is very common as this story reminds us of many incidents in Cameroon where the military fire bullets without control taking away lives of innocent civilians. In Cameroon many stray bullets are said to have killed at least three people in the Anglophone crisis.
Uganda and Cameroon are compared here as they have leaders that have led the country for more than 30 decades and unlike Uganda where the President Yoweri Museveni condemned the killing and ordered the installation of security cameras in all major towns and highways in Uganda, nothing is mentioned about it and no apologies rendered to families of the victims.
In as well as no one condemns military brutality in Cameroon as the perpetrators go scout free, the Uganda Police has described the incident as “highly regrettable” and said they would pay for the treatment of the wounded. One ponders on the payment can bring the lives lost or heal the wounds of bereaved. It is high time Human rights be respected in most of our African countries where every single bullet used is accounted for and culprits brought to book.
Shey Tatah Sevidzem