Democratic Party presidential candidate Norbert Mao was on Thursday morning blocked from accessing the Uganda-Rwanda border town of Katuna by police.
Mao, who is in Kigezi sub region canvassing for votes having campaigned in Kisoro district on Wednesday, was moving to the Uganda –Rwanda border but was blocked by police led by the Kabale DPC Brian Ampaire at Mwanjari along the Kabale –Katuna highway.
As they headed out of Kabale town, hardly after 4 Kms away, Mao, together with his campaign team, found a roadblock mounted by Police who ordered him to “vacate” the district.
An alternation ensued between Mao’s outrageous camp and security personnel, after which, Mao agreed to head for the Rwenzori sub region to proceed with his campaign schedule.
Ampaire says that Mao was blocked from accessing the Katuna border town because he was not supposed to hold any campaign meetings in Kabale since it’s among the 13 cities and districts where campaigns were recently banned due to their high number of covid-19 cases.
“We got reliable information that he (Mao) was going to campaign in Katuna, we had to stop him,” said Ampaire.
Speaking to the press, Mao stated that he wanted to visit the border town of Katuna to access its situation as “it has turned into a ghost town since its closure that culminated from the from the poor management of the Rwanda-Uganda conflict.”
“The closure of Katuna was a big disaster. Uganda’s economy used to earn USD 200 million per year through exports and imports but now it’s a ghost town, which has affected all the poor and the rich,” said Mao.
He added that the crisis was as a result of governments interfering in the other State’s affairs, arguing that the issue can be resolved by the use of the regional bloc and engaging a credible mediator “since others have failed.”
The Katuna border town was closed in February 2019 over an unresolved crisis between Uganda and Rwanda.
