By UJA Team
The Electoral Commission (EC) had marked February Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28th, 2025, for nomination of the aspirants for Kawempe North parliamentary by election slated on 13 March 2025.
As day one of the nomination process checked in, journalists from various media houses thronged the EC’s premises in Mugwanya Zone – Kawempe to execute their lawful professional duty of mirroring the process information public sharing upon the clearance by the commission.
UJA Secretary General Emmanuel Kirunda addressing Journalists
Journalist Miracle Ibra with Top Television Uganda is one of those that were present to cover the process that saw various aspirants from all different shades of political opinion participate.
Shortly after his nomination that had already been tainted with violence against his campaign agent early morning, Erias Luyimbazi Nalukoola (NUP Party flag bearer) recounted to the journalists how his campaign team had allegedly been ruthlessly clamped down by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT) security personnel, reaching a point of stopping him from holding a meeting with his supporters at his hired designated venue; Kawempe Mbogo playground behind the area mosque.
Nalukoola told journalists in his maiden address that him with his team had prior reached consensus with the Kawempe Division Police Commander (DPC) that he meets his supporters at Mbogo
playground, where he eventually chose to move in a procession with a few of his supporters from the commission offices. Journalists too including Ibra followed up his developing story for their various audiences and spaces.
However, the deputy Police spokesperson for Kampala metropolitan region Luke Owoyesigire said when approached by the journalists that the meeting clearance power was only vested in the IGP.
According to the UJA members who were at scene covering the news, Nalukoola’s procession got intercepted by the JAT security personnel who stopped his further procession, thus sparking off a sharp dispute between both sides that ended up seeing the JAT personnel firing several bullets in air to thwart a looming protest from the by standers and onlookers who were opposed to the way the security personnel had handled the situation.
Bullet fires were sparked by the onlookers’ rage leading to pelting of stones at the security personnel in protest against the brutal handling of Nalukoola that followed his arrest and detention to Kawempe Police Station before he could be released. His shirt was left torn in pieces following the scuffle.
As those chaotic scenes played out, some Television journalists including Ibra were behind the cameras capturing the events as they unfolded. He was adorned in his media house well branded jacket to easily be identifiable as a Television journalist.
But Ibra was sadly brutally attacked by one of the JAT personnel whose face, head and fingers were covered with mask and gloves, save for the eyes and nose openings. The officer’s attack who was holding a gun and an object suspected to be a baton while clad in wears written on them JAT, was prompted by an order of the force’s field commander to stop journalists.
He was ruthlessly struck on the eye with that object and ran down to the nearby trench where he found a temporary solace as the gunshots went on sounding there. The inured journalist was later helped by his fellows and some ordinary citizens who rushed him to the nearby health facility for urgent medical attention before he could be rushed to Nsambya Hospital for further handling while in a very critical condition characterized by the severe bleeding.
The Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) leadership issued an interim statement strongly condemning those acts of impunity on journalist Ibra as illegal and committed to help him pursue justice to prevail.
UJA Pays a Courtesy Visit to the Indisposed Journalist at Nsambya Hospital.
On Thursday 27 February 2025, UJA team represented by the Secretary General Emmanuel Kirunda and the Spokesperson Ronald Kabuye with the team from HRNJ paid a courtesy visit to the injured journalist Ibra at Nsambya Hospital to assess his current condition to inform the possible ways of exploring the support and solutions for him.
The Nsambya Hospital handling medical experts said that the deformed journalist had undergone several surgical operations aiming to restore his bruised health. They explained that the patient will undergo supplementary operations in their ongoing effort to realize his recovery.
Addressing journalists at Nsambya Hospital after seeing the bedridden journalist, UJA Secretary General Emmanuel Kirunda decried the un fettered acts of impunity on journalists by the security personnel that pose serious implications to the press freedom landscape in Uganda.
Kirunda noted that it is unfortunate that the security personnel could not restrain themselves from unleashing violence on peaceful and professional journalists in the presence of the High Court Judgement with several declarations stopping and illegalizing further attacks on journalists.
The November Wednesday 13, 2024 judgement by justice Boniface Wamala, arise out of the petition filed by the Uganda Journalists Association on behalf of journalists Timothy Murungi and Henry Sekanjako against the Attorney General (AG), Chief of Defences (CDF) and eight individual military officers under the field command of Lt. Col Napoleone Namanya.
Court found the accused officers guilty of the crimes except the CDF that is not explicitly defined in law as an office or otherwise, and fined them to pay 150 million compensations to the journalists for the injuries suffered. The February 2021 filed petition was challenging the beating of journalists at the d
