The government has released the names 16 police officers, who were killed in the attacks in Kasese on Saturday and Sunday following fresh clashes between security forces and suspected Rwenzururu kingdom loyalists.
Gen Jeje Odong, minister for internal affairs identified the slain officials as Sgt Joseph Kule; Detective Cpl Richard Elai; Cpl Patrick Anywar; Cpl Kasim Kaluba; PC Thomas Malinga; PC Robert Baluku; PC Gaetano Awachi; PC Edward Periyo; PC Henry Oyuci; SPC Cyprian Masereka; SPC Jonathan Bwambale; SPC Christopher Kamango and SPC Salimo Luzinda.
They died on duty after a group of alleged royal guards of Omusinga hurled an improvised grenade at Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) and Police officers. The UPDF and Police were patrolling Kasese town when the improvised grenade was reportedly hurled at them. The joint security forces responded with gunfire which sparked off retaliation attacks by suspected kingdom loyalists on Police Posts across the district.
Police say 25 more bodies had been recovered after the weekend fighting bringing the government’s total death toll to 87, despite reports that about 126 people had been killed.
“We recovered 25 bodies from two sub-counties on Monday and a postmortem is being done to establish the facts,” Kasese district police commander, Sam Odong said.
The Rwenzururu monarch Charles Mumbere has been charged with murder of a police officer.
According to the charge sheet, presented in court today, the king of Rwenzururu is accused of murdering a police officer on 24 March 2016.
He was arrested during clashes over the weekend in his kingdom but has not yet been charged with offences related to the fighting over the weekend.
