A police statement on the death of Makerere University student Emmanuel Tegu has sparked off the Justice for Tegu campaign online.
On July 04, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango dismissed reports LDUs had beaten up Tegu.
Tegu, a third year student of veterinary medicine, succumbed to injuries sustained a week earlier in an incident at the university’s Lumumba Hall.
Onyango said it was a mob that beat up Tegu suspecting him to be a thief.
The student was walking during curfew hours.
Police has not arrested anyone in connection to the incident that resulted in the student’s death.
Tegu’s colleagues at the university said he was a humble man who loved spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He was a member of Christ Hearts Church in Makerere.
Some even claim that those who beat him up had met him on his way from a fellowship meeting.
These insist that it is the Local Defence Unit (LDU) guards that badly beat up Tegu.
But Onyango said “no single LDU personnel is deployed at Makerere University.”
“The security of the university is being managed by Police and private security firms,” he added.
But on social media, especially on Twitter, Justice for Tegu trended on Sunday, July 05.
There were also calls for President Yoweri Museveni to rein in LDUs and other security agencies.
Museveni previously described LDUs harassing people during enforcement of Covid19 lockdown curfew as “pigs.”
Hundreds signed the ‘Disarm the LDU in Uganda’ petition started online.
Lead petitioner Collin Mbabazi blamed the LDUs’ highhandedness on inadequate training.
“LDU’s take about a month or two training and they are equipped with firearms and authority which they have constantly abused,” he said.
