By MUGISA ALFRED
Staff writer
About a week ago, Kyangwali News Information technology Director, Mr. Rugira Elize and his producer, Joe were arrested and jailed for a couple hours. Mr. Rugira then reached out to the headquarters in Scranton-USA and in the conversation with the CEO of the News organisation, he said," We did nothing wrong other than just taking pictures of some places for a routine website updated" adding, "probably someone just randomly became suspicious of the activity and called police on us." Kyangwali Refugee Settlement is prone to interference with journalists. In 2014, Mr. Binama of Kyangwali Star Magazine was arrested in Nsonga for hours by the Nsonga police for taking photographs around the Oil exploration area and was rescued by the director of CISO, Console Mutegeki and his Secretary Ushu who were passing by.
Mr. Rugira's arrest came days after he me with Mr. Andreas from Europe at St. Patrick's Center in Kagoma were they discussed for about an hour about Kyangwali News and its objectives. In a phone interview, Mr. Rugira said, " He liked our project and encouraged us to keep it up because it's gonna help." Kyangwali News that was founded last year in July aims at breaking the barrier of lack of information and instant news withing the African refugee community that was resettled in different countries overseas and those that remained.
Mr. Rugira who was released on a police bond of Ugx. 50,000/= said the arrested has instead incouraged him much more because he feels he was arrested for not committing a crime but for doing something good. According to a statement from the news headquarters in Scranton, Mr. Ushu, the founder of the News Project said, " It's a shame to arrest a young man like Mr. Rugira for just being a coward", adding, " Kyangwali News is not a criminal entity but a group of young men committed to availing quality news for refugee public consumption".
CID Kasonga and his OC could not be reached via phone.
The IT Director was to then go meet with Mr. Bwenge Dickens to discuss matters relating to the news operations in the refugee camp and ways to avoid unnecessary arrests like one he was a victim of. More of the story will be coming up next relating to their discussions with the OPM official. Please subcribe to Kyangwalinews so you don't miss out on the news for one of the biggest refugee settlements in Uganda.
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