On the 13th December 2015 in Kitwe Ntungamo district, supporters of independent Presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi attacked and beat up supporters of NRM candidate President Yoweri Museveni. Mbabazi supporters accused supporters of President Museveni of provoking them by disrupting their scheduled campaign activities. The violence scenes that ensued during the clashes between the two groups prompted a sharp response from the President who condemned the attacks from his supporters and vowed to have the perpetrators severely punished.

Lydia Kambedia the Ntungamo Grade1 Magistrate acquitted the 17 suspects charged with the assault. In her judgment, the Magistrate said the prosecution had failed to submit convincing evidence to prove that the suspects had indeed committed the acts of grievous harm, assault and malicious damage against supporters of NRM and President Yoweri Museveni. Kambedia also revealed that the suspects who were mentioned by the witnesses in the Court like Amama Mbabazi’s head of security Christopher Aine and Bwoi Mukungu were not charged and were ignored by the prosecution who instead chose to prosecute people with no connection to the violent acts.

Defense Counsel Onesmus Matsiko welcomed the decision by the Court saying the case had no merit and had simply been politically motivated. “So this judgment has brought out many issues in regard to how criminal justice should be handled specially in a political hit situation. So, most of the accused persons were indeed wronged, most of them were not at the scene but because there was something that needed to be brought to the Court.” Said, Onesmus Matsiko – Defence Lawyer. The acquitted men who were visibly peace as they walked free after close to two years since they were arrested and charged.