George Williams, 7th Feb 2024
Opposition MPs led by the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi have accused the government of what they termed as selective application of the law after Kitgum Woman MP Lilian Aber was seen donning a UPDF attire on Tarehe Sita celebrations yet when the opposition activists who support NUP put on red berets, they are arrested and charged in Courts of law for being in possession of military stores.
“We have a couple of people who are in jail, there is a young lady Olivia Lutaaya and several others who have been in jail 3-4 years simply because as the charge is, they were in possession of red berets with an insignia People Power and the UPDF said that those berets look like UPDF uniform, so it is illegal to wear them, they have been locked up for 3-4 years, their cases haven’t kicked off at all simply because they wore something the UPDF says looked like their uniform, but here are people who wore the real UPDF uniforms,” added Joel Ssenyonyi .
However in response to Ssenyonyi complaints, Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja refuted claims that some Ugandans are being arrested for wearing red berets due to their resemblance to UPDF uniform, saying that she has seen several MPs wearing the red berets in public, but none has been arrested, yet these haven’t apologized to the Army like Lilian Aber did when she was recently photographed wearing a UPDF uniform.
“When she (Lilian Aber) put on that uniform, she was put to order and that is why some of you knew came to know of it. This issue was handled by the army and I believe the army has already given a statement but Lilian Aber apologized, preferably maybe she didn’t know, but now she knows,” said Nabbanja.
However Nabbanja’s statement didn’t go well with Ssenyonyi who called it hypocrisy. “This hypocrisy has got to stop, it can’t be that when somebody wears something that is simply resemblance to a UPDF attire is arrested and another wears a UPDF attire and it is okay, and the UPDF comes out and say these said sorry, it is okay. This isn’t acceptable it would be important for the Government to inform this House, is there a selective application of the law. Are there any people who are more Ugandan than others Joel Ssenyonyi remarked.
