The Police in Kampala have said that they have released fourteen supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) who were arrested on Independence Day as they organized to hold prayers.
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Patrick Onyango, said the group including NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya, party spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi, and its head of mobilisation, Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu, were released without any charge.
Onyango said this was preventive arrest and they have not preferred any charges on them.
The group was arrested by Uganda People’s Defence Forces and Police who had earlier deployed heavily in Kamwokya and other places in Kampala.
The soldiers who travelled in a minibus found Rubongoya and Ssenyonyi soon after they had addressed journalists and they were whisked away to Kira Road Police Station where they were detained.
Several MPs including Mukono Municipality’s Betty Nambooze and Kalungu East’s Francis Katabaazi, among others, stormed the station and demanded their unconditional release.
According to Onyango, the suspects were picked from their party offices in Kamwokya, Kampala Central Division, for allegedly organising parallel Independence Day celebrations, but added that the celebrations were fronted to dupe the security personnel as they allegedly had other motives.
