Man dies after being shot by LDU at vigil

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |   A man has died after being shot by Local Defense Unit-LDU personnel enforcing night-time curfew in Kamwokya city Suburbs. 

Twenty-two-year-old Mark Lubowa breathed his last at Mulago National Referral Hospital on Wednesday evening where he had been admitted following the shooting.

Information obtained by our reporter shows that Lubowa was hit around 11 pm on Tuesday evening after LDUs opened fire at mourners during the vigil for the late Emma Ssemanda in Kisenyi ll village in Kamwokya. 

According to some of the residents, they were mourning Ssemanda who was knocked dead along the northern bypass, when a group of police officers from Kyebando police post backed by LDUs surrounded them led by Hajji Busale, the Defense Secretary from the neighbouring village.

Lubowa’s sister, Winnie Luyiga, says some mourners y tried to flee when they saw LDUs holding batons and police dogs moving their direction prompting one of the LDUs to fire at them.       

She says one of the bullets hit her brother on the head and they rushed her to Mulago National Referral Hospital where he was pronounced dead on Wednesday evening. 

Stuart Mwanje alias Youth Commander in Kisenyi II who witnessed the shooting, says the security officers fired at the mourners without any provocation.     

Major Yusuf Bilaali Katamba, the First Infantry Division UPDF Spokesperson referred our reporter to Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, saying he was yet to receive any information on the said shooting.  

“You can contact the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, Patrick Onyango he could be with more details on that incident. But there was an operation of criminal gangs on the Northern bypass on the same night,” Katamba told Uganda Radio Network on Thursday morning.   

Both the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson and his deputy were yet to respond to our inquiry on the matter by the time of publishing this story. More than 10 people have been killed by security agencies in operations to enforce COVID-19 directives issued by the president in March this year. 

The victims were gunned down in different areas by Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF), Uganda Police Force and Local Defense Unit (LDU) personnel.

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