Police officers in Masaka on the spot for starving suspects

Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The police in Masaka district is on the spot for allegedly starving suspects while under detention.

In a petition to the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, a social rights activist Joseph Kasirye wants the MPs to probe into reports of violation of suspects rights while in police cells.

Kasirye, a resident of Kirimya ward, Kimanya-Kabonera division in Masaka city alleges that besides congesting suspects in small cells in total disregard of the Covid-19 standard operating procedures, police do not feed the suspects, living them to starve.

Kasirye who was recently arrested and detained for three days at Masaka central police station, over his alleged participation in an illegal assembly, argues that access to food in police cells is treated as a luxury and that many of them sleep on empty stomachs.

According to him, suspects access food through volunteers and well-wishers who however visit under restrictions, a situation that deprives the suspects of their right to food.

Kasirye wants the committee to probe into the management and expenditures of the Uganda Police Force budget and the allocations to the feeding of suspects, arguing that the situation in Masaka could be a replica of what is happening across the country.

He alleges that many people have silently suffered violations inside police cells, demanding that parliament institutes a special inquiry into these incidents.

Kasirye’s petition has come in the wake of allegations by Bukoto East MP Florence Namayanja who also recently reported to the Police Professional Standards Unit-PSU, the Officer in Charge of Masaka Central Police Station Majid Owepukulu, accusing him of starving her while in detention yet she was on treatment.

Namayanja was arrested during campaigns in February after police suspected her to be among the mobilizers of political demonstrations that occurred in Masaka.

Muhammad Nsubuga, the greater Masaka regional police spokesperson has declined to comment on the allegations.

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