DP demands Otafiire’s resignation and questioning for dangerous words.
While speaking to the media during the party's weekly briefing, Luyimbazi Nalukoola, the party's national legal advisor, also sought the president's resignation, citing the president's failure to provide security to the country's citizens.
The Democratic Party has demanded that Ministry of Internal Affairs Minister General Kahinda Otafiire resign immediately and be interrogated over statements he made in connection with the Masaka killings.
On Thursday, Otafiire said and implied that if the ruling National Resistance Movement was in charge of Masaka, there would be no killings in the region. This was in response to claims that the opposition, having won a majority of votes in the recently concluded 2021 elections, had taken control of the region. However, the region remains within the borders of Uganda, and security is the responsibility of the government, not different political parties.
While speaking to the media during the party’s weekly briefing, Luyimbazi Nalukoola, the party’s national legal advisor, also sought the president’s resignation, citing the president’s failure to provide security to the country’s citizens.
Even if Otafiire agreed to DP’s demand, it would not be the first time he had to quit from a ministerial position due to wrongdoing. After being accused of pulling a firearm during a dispute with the late Jennifer Kuteesa at the Fairway hotel in 1998, he resigned. He, too, held the same post and was a colonel in the army at the time. President Museveni, in welcoming the speech, stated that the National Resistance Movement government will not tolerate any indiscipline demonstrated by anyone, regardless of status, such as that displayed by Otafiire.
He’s also been linked to a number of other controversies, including exploiting natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, irregularly giving away state property, and being accused of land grabbing.
Luyimbazi stated at a press conference held at City House that the Democratic Party will not decline the offer to join the Inter-party Organisation for Debate-IPOD, a platform that brings political parties together for dialogue.
He claimed that, unlike the National Unity Platform, which recently declined the invitation, Uganda’s oldest party is open to conversation and the money that could be involved, but he complained that the National Resistance Movement always gets the lion’s share.
The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy is a supporter of IPOD.
