Ugandan music promoter Bajjo faces treason charges

Ugandan music promoter Bajjo faces treason charges
Bajjo was abducted on Saturday by armed security officers dressed in uniforms belonging to the Presidential Protection Guard (PPG), a unit under the elite SFC.

Uganda Police Force are considering treason charges against music promoter Andrew Mukasa also known as Bajjo, who was arrested on Saturday 15th.

Police Spokesman Fred Enanga told journalists in Kampala today that Bajjo’s treason charges stemmed from a video in which he was allegedly inciting people to cause an uprising against President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his government. The video was uploaded on social media pages.

The arrest came moments after a press conference in which he announced a marathon organized to support Robert Kyagulanyi, the Kyadondo East Member of Parliament to raise money he has lost over a number of failed concerts and children who lost parents during the infamous Arua riots last year.

Mukasa, trading as Bajjo Events and his colleague Abby Musinguzi, also known as ABTEX productions, dragged the police to court last month for blocking Bobi Wine’s Kyarenga Extra Concerts. According to their records, up to 124 concerts featuring Kyagulanyi, have been cancelled since 2017.

Read Also: Events companies sue police for blocking Bobi Wine’s concerts

The two companies said that they had a Memorandum of Understanding with Bobi Wine to provide entertainment at a cost of 230 million Shillings. The musician cum Politician had received half of the payment before the concerts were blocked.

According to the police, the concerts that had been organized to take place in the districts of Kampala, Lira, Gulu, and Arua from April 22 to May 5, 2019, were blocked after the organizers failed to adhere to the stricter safety guidelines and site infrastructure concerns at the selected venues.

The Police indicated that the previous Kyarenga concerts had poor track records that were characterized with multiple incidents, related to public nuisance due to overcrowding, thefts, violation of traffic rules and various misconducts, which were not only a breach of law but also a danger to the revellers and the lives of other members of the community.

“Our intelligence picked up information that the event was still a risk to public safety. The promoters totally failed to meet the proactive harm minimization measures agreed upon to help address potential eventualities that might arise due to overcrowding,” Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga said.

Enanga says Bajjo is now detained at Special Investigations Division in Kireka.

URN