MP Nambooze narrates how teargas almost killed her son, granddaughter on nomination day

Mukono Municipality MP Betty Bakireke Nambooze has recounted how a police raid on her home almost claimed his son and granddaughter as officers reportedly fired teargas inside the house.

 Nambooze says the incident happened on October 15, the day she and most family members had accompanied her for her nomination.

In her own words…

He is one of the most humble, selfless and disciplined persons in our family. When he was young he used to say that he will grow up to be a Policeman in order to protect his Mum.

He gets nervous tensions when anything bad happens to me… That is the love of boys with their Moms.

Age has taught him something though… He has come to know what Ugandan Policemen do. They are not anywhere near the things he sees on his most favorite TV- Rescue Mission Channel.

He believes in a Police that save lives… that undertake daring missions to protect people and their property.

He now says he wants to be a fiction writer and indeed he has written a number of short stories… He is also training hard to be a professional Basketballer… His idea of becoming a Policeman remains suspended as of now.

On Thursday [October 15], he stayed home with his brother’s daughter when the rest of us went for the EC nominations.

He told me that when he heard gunshots he knew I was in danger… And going outside, he saw armed men taking positions around our home.

He ran back into the house and it was smoke everywhere… Policemen were shelling our home with teargas.

He hurriedly closed the doors, windows… thinking that they would keep the teargas fume out… He was wrong.

And he paid dearly for he was rescued by good Samaritans who broke into the house through one of the windows.

He had passed out in the bathroom where he had gone for water.

I feel so hard pressed thinking about the pain my son and my young granddaughter had to endure… My son committed one offence: having Nambooze who doesn’t belong to the ruling party as one’s mother!

I feel so bad for Police to have attempted to kill my son. The trauma my children go through most of the time makes me question whether it’s still viable for us Ugandans to continue hanging on to the hardships we are facing under Mr Museveni’s regime?

When he was discharged from hospital, he requested his brother-in-law to take him to his place and he has refused to return home…

I can’t hold tears back as I think about my children… And the children of Uganda… I have had a sleepless night thinking through all this and more…. “Politics stupid.”

But “I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121). Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

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