Lwemiyaga County lawmaker Theodore Ssekikubo’s problems could be getting from bad to worse.
The MP was detained on Friday at Masaka Police station after a scuffle between police and herdsmen who attempted to forcefully enter Lwemiyaga cattle market and sell their cows. Police had a week earlier closed the market following reported outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the area.
Now, reports indicate that the police have preferred attempted murder charges against the MP.
The charges relate to an incident in 2010 in which Ssekikubo reportedly shot Habibu Nsamba Kanyarutokye, a security operative, in the private parts during the hotly contested party primaries where Ssekikubo was contesting with Patrick Nkalubo.
Ssekikubo and a section of herdsmen insist some parts of the district like Lwemiyaga were placed under quarantine yet no cases of FMD had been reported there.
The lawmaker has since blamed his current woes on Security Minister, General Elly Tumwine.
Ssekikubo accuses Tumwine of enforcing the quarantine to create a monopoly and profiteer from cattle trade with his business associates at the expense of local livestock farmers.
He claims that although there hasn’t been any confirmed case of the Foot and Mouth Disease in Lwemiyiga county, the Security minister has insisted on closing cattle markets in total disregard of the provisions in the Animal Diseases Act that only mandates the Commissioner Animal Health to issue such directives.
Ssekikubo indicates that prior to his arrest on Friday hundreds of residents petitioned parliament on Tuesday complaining about the persecution by the security Minister disguised in enforcement of quarantine.
According to Ssekikubo, enforcing a false quarantine in Lwemiyaga is a deliberate plot to compel farmers to sell off their livestock at a giveaway price in markets in the neighboring districts that are already manipulated by Gen. Tumwine’s associates.
