Police, NUP face off over defaced campaign posters

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Police Force has said that it never participated in defacing posters of the National Unity Platform presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi or even protect those who participated in the illegal act.

Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson Patrick Onyango defended the police after images started circulating on social media showing men dressed in a replica of the police uniform, defacing campaign posters along the Kampala-Entebbe highway and within the Kampala central business district.

Kyagulanyi, a current Member of Parliament is due for nomination on Tuesday, as he seeks to challenge President Yoweri Museveni who has been in power for the 34 years. His National Unity Platform party has in recent months taken the country by storm, attracting support and members from the older opposition political parties.

But the path has become soggy according to NUP secretary-general David Lewis Lubongoya, who is accusing the armed forces of protecting criminals to frustrate Kyagulanyi’s candidature by defacing his posters while also participating in erecting Museveni’s posters and billboards.

According to Ugandan law, any person who maliciously defaces or removes or tears any election poster of any nominated candidate commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding six hundred thousand Shillings or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both.

However, Onyango explained that where police were involved in defacing or removing campaign posters, there was participation by all concerned parties to clear places in which it was deemed that posters disrupted traffic flow or disturbed other road users.

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