Security guards attached to businessman Hamis Kiggundu yesterday roughed up journalists who had gone to report about a transformer that had caught fire at Ham Shopping Grounds in Nakivubo.
The journalists had been alerted by some of the tenants near the transformer. The tenants were forced to evacuate their stuff fearing that it would be destroyed by fire.
However, when the journalists reached the scene, they were thwarted by a group of heavily built men who told them not to film anything. They did not want the incident exposed as it would cast the building in bad light.
When the journalists insisted on reporting the incident, they were beaten by the men and their equipment was destroyed.
One of the affected journalists, David Ssekayombwa from Bukedde TV told us that he was assaulted and his camera destroyed.
“They [men] beat me up and pushed me,” Ssekayombwa said. We have been told that two journalists from Baba TV were also assaulted.
Ssekayombwa filed a case of assault at Old Kampala Police Station Ref No: 128/28/2024.
This is not the first time that security men have attacked journalists. In February when Janet6 Museveni, the minister of Education and Sports visited Nakivubo, some journalists were assaulted after she had left.