Police in Gomba District have arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly abusing President Museveni.
Police identified the suspect as Joseph Kasumba, a resident of Kanoni Town Council and driver of a pickup truck that transports agricultural produce to the different markets in the area.
Kasumba allegedly abused the President on January 1 as he ( Museveni) was travelling from St. John’s Cathedral, Kasaka where he had attended New Year’s church service.
“When his [Museveni’s] convoy reached Kanoni Town, Special Forces Command soldiers reportedly ordered one of the drivers to move his vehicle from the road to allow the presidential motorcade pass. This is when a group of youth allegedly led by Kasumba started exchanging words with the soldiers and abused President Museveni, calling him all sorts of names including Bosco. They also blamed him of constructing narrow roads,” a police source who did not want to be named because he’s not authorized to speak to the media said on Thursday.
Gomba District police Commander, Mr Robert Kuzaara said Kasumba is in their custody at Kanoni Police Station pending investigations.
He said the suspect is likely to be charged with alleged alarming, annoying and ridiculing the person of the president contrary to the Penal Code Act.
Related cases
Kasumba is not the first person to get in trouble for allegedly attacking the President.
Makerere University research fellow, Dr Stella Nyanzi also spent the festive season in jail over abusing President Museveni and his deceased mother on September 16 on her Facebook page.
In October last year, one Suzan Namata was arrested after taking a video threatening to hit President Museveni with her genitals if he didn’t release Kyadondo east MP, Robert Kyagulanyi from prison.
In the same month, detectives also arrested Moses Nsubuga popularly known as Viboyo for singing a song in which he allegedly used obscene words to refer to government leaders including President Museveni and Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga.
Last July, Mr Hope Mulangira Kaweesa, a Democratic Party supporter, was also arrested on similar charges after he allegedly circulated an audio threatening to harm President Museveni.
The name ‘ Bosco Katala’ has over the last month gained traction as a derogatory term used to refer to what the young people on social media see as Museveni’s backward national policies and personal enrichment at the expense of the taxpayer.
Katala is a word from the widely spoken Luganda local language, that means ‘someone who is unsophisticated or a socially awkward person, usually from the village’.
The origin of the name Bosco stems from a commercial that was released by the biggest telecommunications company in Uganda, MTN, promoting the use of cashless transactions using mobile money.
The advert ‘tells the story of Bosco’, an middle-aged Ugandan man who comes to the city, and goes shopping at a supermarket in a fancy shopping mall, where he is shown how to pay using mobile money.
Bosco rides his bicycle through metal detectors, escalators and supermarket aisles.
