A royal guard of the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu has been shot dead as he tried to arrest by police in fresh clashes in Kasese district that ensued on Saturday evening.
The incident that took place at Bigando in Hima also left one police officer, identified as Amos Mutamba critically injured and was rushed to Kilembe hospital where he is still admitted. Another royal guard, Aloysius Ndungu was arrested and is in police custody.
According to residents, it all started about a fortnight ago when letters with a message threatening to attack the area LC I chairman, Mr Ezekiel Masereka and the Hima District Police Commander were circulated by unknown people.
Mr Masereka then alerted police who linked the two royal guards to the letters that were being circulated.
“This plan came true on Saturday when a group of six people including two royal guards at Bigando in Hima clashed with police,” said a witness.
“As police tried to arrest the two suspects in the trading centre on Saturday, one royal guard Julius Manda tried to fight back by stabbing a police officer in the back and in retaliation, police shot and killed Manda and arrested Aloysius Ndungu (also a royal guard),” said the witness.
There has been a spate of attacks in the Rwenzori region following the February 2016 presidential and general elections. The clashes have so far claimed tens of lives including police, army and civilians.
The Police spokesperson for the Rwenzori sub region, Ms Lydia Tumushabe confirmed Saturday’s attack saying, “Yes, there was an attack, we got earlier intelligence reports that there would be fresh attacks in Bigando especially targeting police, so we went ahead to quell the attacks before they took place, in our operations yesterday (Saturday), our officers were attacked as they tried to arrest the suspects, one was arrested and three are on the run,” said Ms Tumushabe.
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