Police forced pepper spray in my mouth, says Turinawe

A senior police officer has been accused of stuffing the mouth of an opposition women’s leader with pepper spray as the Force broke up yet another anti-Electoral Commission protest.

Ms Ingrid Turinawe, the chairperson of the Forum for Democratic Change’s women’s league told journalists yesterday from Nsambya Hospital that Kampala South Metropolitan Police Commander, Moses Kafeero, forced the contents of a full canister of pepper spray down her throat.

Doctors in Nsambya Hospital were still treating Ms Turinawe who was reportedly placed on oxygen support for about 12 hours after she developed respiratory and abdominal difficulties.

The Metropolitan police chief found himself in the spotlight after riot police stopped opposition supporters from staging an impromptu demonstration against the Electoral Commission. His actions, Ms Turinawe says, would seem to have been deliberate. She said Mr Kafeero forced her mouth open before directing a blast of pepper spray into her mouth, a charge that the police officer has denied.

“He (Kafeero) called me outside and I followed him. He pulled out [pepper] spray and forced it into my mouth. I tried to run but failed. He even destroyed my clothes. I have been on oxygen since yesterday. The man almost killed me,” Ms Turinawe said from her hospital bed.

Although Mr Kafeero admitted using pepper spray against the demonstrating women, he denied targeting Ms Turinawe. “That is false. We used pepper spray but we did not target any individual,” Mr Kafeero said. “We used teargas on all those women who were beating police officers. Ingrid cannot say the truth because she always exaggerates things,”


Anti-EC
The opposition, mainly organised around the Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC) umbrella, have demanded the disbanding of the electoral body on the grounds that it is in bed with the ruling National Resistance Movement leadership and thus cannot preside over free and fair elections in 2011.

The government has so far refused to budge, with President Museveni insisting that the EC as presently constituted is competent to organise the polls. Two women, Ms Asala Night and Aidah Namukwaya were arrested during the protest. They were later charged in Buganda Road Court and given a non-cash bail of Shs10 million each after two charges of holding unlawful assembly and assaulting police officers were preferred against them. They denied the charges