MP Timuzigu urges Govt to Compensate Victims of Election Violence

The Member of Parliament for Kajara County, Hon. Michael Timuzigu has urged the Government to immediately consider and develop a plan to compensate the victims of the campaign violence during the runner-up to the 2021 general elections.

Timuzigu while speaking to fellow legislators on Tuesday noted\ that many people, including from his constituency, were shot and killed by bullets from the security personnel quelling riots.

“In November last year, over 50 people were killed across the country during the security operation to suppress riots instigated by the arrest of then presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi. Some of those killed were bystanders or passers-by hit by stray bullets,” said Hon. Timuzigu.

The legislator stated that none of the families of the victims have been compensated or reached out to by the Government.

“Madam Speaker, I have discovered that no report has been done concerning the deaths, no family member has been compensated and no Government representative has reached out to them,” he said.

Hon. Timuzigu now wants the Government to present a report detailing how the victims lost their lives and also come up with plans for compensation.

“In my constituency, a graduate who had just gotten a job and the only breadwinner in his family was shot and killed by a stray bullet. Now the ageing parents, who toiled to pay his school fees, have been helplessly left begging to survive,” he noted.

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga directed the Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen. JeJe Odongo to report to the House on Tuesday next week to inform legislators and the country on the plans to compensate the families of the victims.

“I also remember a mother of one of the victims demonstrating here because ever since the incident happened, no one has reached out to her. The Minister of Internal Affairs needs to come here on Tuesday next week to tell us the way forward,” said Kadaga.

Riots happened mainly in some urban areas last year when the then National Unity Platform party presidential candidate, Kyagulanyi was arrested in Numisindwa in Eastern Uganda.