protests and a lot of tear-gas

Last Monday, the former presidential candidate and leading opposition leader- Besigye (loosing the last three elections) and others from the party formed a 'Walk to Work' protest in Kampala due to rising fuel prices. Besigye has criticized the government for "reckless expenditure." The first day of the 'Walk to Work' protest, Besigye and Mao were arrested by government military for inciting violence and then this past Thursday, the cover of BBC claimed that Besigye had been shot in the arm during the walk. What BBC failed to explain was that Besigye was actually shot in the finger with a rubber bullet; however, it was able to give him international media attention, which couldn't have been better for his agenda. The opposition party is going to continue the 'Walk to Work' every Monday and Thursday.

This past Thursday and Friday students at nearby university planned to protest due to a double in tuition rates. I happened to be in Kampala at the time needing to present at TASO headquarters in order to finish my fellowship and decided to stay at my friend's house located in the neighborhood of the university. On Thursday after my presentation we ended up taking a long obscure route into town due to having roads blocked and seeing protesters and military interacting, we had to immediately turn our vehicle around and go an alternative route. I being possibly too curious wanted to see what was going on, but I know my fellow students in the car just wanted to get away from the protest as quickly and safely as possible. Little did I know that the next day, a protest would happen right outside my friends gate where I was staying for the weekend. When I got to the house, Dani and Julie said that they could hear the protests and what sounded like gun shots (tear-gas) and screaming in their neighborhood; however, only saw the remnants- burn marks on the road.

Friday morning Dani and I had planned to go to a service at a mosque; however, immediatly after Dani's roommate had left the house she called Dani and told her not to go to the mosque- that the students were protesting right in the area. So, Dani and I decided that we at least wanted to go out and see what was going on. We began to hear many people cheering and blowing horns coming down the main street right in her neighborhood. We decided to take a good look on what was going on and walked outside of her gate. We found that people were rolling tires and starting to chant, "We go, we go, we want the gas!"

When students saw that soldiers were coming down the street everyone started cheering- wanted them to come. Most students started to run into the hostels that were across or next to the compound that we were in.

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Some students stayed around and threw rocks at the soldiers.

photos above taken by Dani

When everyone started running, we decided it may be a good time to run into our compound; however, we peered over the wall of the compound to get a better look of what was going on, while everyone else ran inside. The soldiers spotted us taking photos, and one soldier pointed his gun up towards us and shot. So at that point I was pretty scared and immediately we all ran back into our house.

After the soldiers patrolled the area for about twenty minutes shooting off tear-gas and assessing the situation, they finally decided to raid the hostel across the street and arrest a guy. (The guy on the roof).

photo taken by Dani

After the police had raided the hostel across the street, a head officer came to our gate and tried to open it, and soon all of the riot-geared police had congregated around the gate. At the point, we all hid our valuable possessions in the house having no idea what the police were planning to do. The police finally left, and we all finally began to relax. About an hour after the raid, a tank pulled up right in front of our gate and about 8 rounds of tear gas were shot into the hostel across the street. We were all watching from the front windows and then all of a sudden, a tear-gas canister was shot directly into the compound near the porch. Earlier during the raid, a canister was shot right near our gate on the inside of our compound; however, this one was directly shot at us. We all ran to the back rooms and covered our faces with scarfs-not only was I crying, but my throat and nostrils had an intense burning sensation. Some of the women outside in our compound ran to the back spraying water on their face and gagging, not the most pleasant sound. Apparently a soilder had walked up the alley way next to the house and thrown it into our compound. Maybe due to our picture taking? We really are not sure.

We immediately left the compound after that was shot into our yard and when things seemed safe to leave. When we were leaving, we saw about 30 police sitting around right outside the gate to the right, so we immediately took bodas in the opposite direction. The protest was such an experience and quite an exciting one at the time. It also sounds like protests like this happen almost annually specifically from this university. We all finally cooled off, and spent the weekend at a friend's house. Currently I am in Mbale, hanging out getting ready to leave for Cairo next week.