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(Photo: Dennis Porter)
Kizza Besigye, the country’s main opposition leader, has been encouraging his supporters to walk to work twice a week to protest against escalating fuel and food prices.
These protest walks have triggered a large police and military response, in some cases, violent clashes.
Besigye was set to walk again on Thursday, but when he drove to the end of his driveway, police officers in riot gear were waiting for him. They told him that if he tried to leave his house he would be placed under “preventative arrest” though they maintained that he wasn’t under “house arrest.”
“If they want to arrest me, they should formally put me under arrest,” Besigye said. “But coming to terrorize me around my home is completely out of order.”
Besigye has been injured twice in the past month or so, as police broke up his walk-to-work protests. Several people have been killed in the confrontations.
Andrew Mwenda, who publishes The Independent newspaper, said the authorities who went to Besigye’s house Thursday won this round by avoiding a violent confrontation.
“Each time the state responds with a lot of violence, it makes many people angry and people join the protests,” Mwenda said. “And the instant the government appears civilized, it actually demobilizes the demonstrators.”
And police have been changing their tactics, according to Judith Nabakooba, a Kampala police spokeswoman.
“We used to use tear gas and rubber bullets, but we have seen that if it goes on the streets, you find there is confrontation with the police,” she said.
Last week, police began employing a new strategy: spraying protestors with what looked like bright pink paint out of water cannons. Police say it’s easier to target and mark the protestors. Colored water is less harmful than other methods of force but it’s also nearly impossible to remove from clothes and buildings.
Robert Kiryowa works at a shoe store in downtown Kampala. About a week ago, authorities sprayed protestors with the pink substance in front of his store. A week later, he still can’t wash away the stain.
“Maybe I should repaint,” Kiryowa said.
Some store owners say they want the government to compensate them for the damage. Meanwhile, with Kizza Besigye confined to his home, there were no large protests on Thursday, and Uganda’s president has vowed to put an end to them permanently.
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