A 17-year-old male child Abdul Rahman Ggyole is among those who have been remanded to Kitalya maximum on Friday following a security raid at National Unity Platform Headquarters in Kamwokya and other parts of Kampala where several people including traders in Kiyembe were rounded up for possessing and manufacturing red berets and other NUP merchandise.
On Friday, 23 of the supporters were arraigned before the City Hall magistrates court where they were charged with offences related to wearing uniforms meant to be used by persons in the forces contrary to section 170(1) (2) and (4) of the Penal Code Act.
Prosecution alleges that the accused were on the 14th October ,2020 were found wearing or in possession of uniforms or dresses bearing parts , distinctive marks of the security forces uniform like lineyards, peeps and berets resembling those of the security agencies yet they are not persons serving in any of the armed forces of Uganda including the police, Prisons or UPDF an act that contemplates the forces uniform.
Court presided over by Grade one magistrate, Valerian Tumuhimbise further found guilty of disobedience of lawful orders to the suspects when they gathered at NUP offices in Kamwokya in large numbers contrary to the presidential directives on banning gatherings which are likely to lead to the spread of Coronavirus.
These however denied the charges and were remanded to Kitalya by the grade one magistrate, Valerian Tumuhimbise until October 23, 2020.
Its understood that last year government gazetted the red berets used by “People Power” NUP supporters lead by Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi, the Kyadondo East legislator also presidential hopeful in the 2021 election.
The photos of security personnel pushing Rahman on a police patrol van which were awadhed on social media have attracted a pool of attacks from human rights activists and child-rights defenders, social media users accusing security of violating the rights of the children who were arrested during the raid.
