A senior Ugandan opposition figure told AFP on Friday that security forces raided his home during Thursday’s elections and shot dead 10 members of his campaign team.
Muwanga Kivumbi, a National Unity Platform (NUP) lawmaker representing Butambala in central Uganda, said the killings took place inside his residence. “Ten people were killed inside my house,” he told AFP by phone.
Uganda conducted the vote under an internet blackout, while rights groups accused President Yoweri Museveni of carrying out brutal repression as he seeks to extend his four decades in power.
Kivumbi said the attack left him emotionally devastated. He explained that hundreds of supporters had gathered at his home after voting ended when security forces moved in.
Although many people escaped, officers fired through the door of a garage where 10 campaign agents had taken cover, according to his wife, Zahara Nampewo, a law professor.
Police spokesperson Lydia Tumushabe disputed the account, claiming that a group of NUP supporters had planned to attack and burn a local tally centre and police station. She said an unspecified number of people were neutralised and that police arrested 25 others on charges of malicious damage to property.
Kivumbi and his wife said security personnel removed the bodies from their home. However, they confirmed through a local hospital that 10 people had died.
The internet shutdown prevented images from emerging from the scene.
Nampewo said security forces had redeployed around their home, leaving her anxious and deeply shaken. She added that heavy security had surrounded them in the days before the election and that their team had faced repeated attacks.