Museveni gives ‘no arrest’ order

KAMPALA

President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday ordered police and other authorities to stop arresting people on charges of being idle and disorderly. 

Addressing his supporters at the Kazo grounds in Nansana Municipality, Wakiso district the National Resistance Movement's presidential candidate asked his aides at State House to remind him to have the law on idle and disorderly persons repealed.

“I hear they arrest my people in Kampala on idle and disorderly charges. ‘‘I don’t want to hear it anymore. Stop arresting my people,” Mr Museveni said, adding that “my people write it down and remind me, I am going to cancel that instrument.”

The law states that any person who behaves in a disorderly or indecent manner in any public place, on conviction will be liable to three months' imprisonment or a fine not exceeding USh3,000, or both.

Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has been a vocal critic of this law, which he said was enacted during the colonial days, and on numerous occasions has demanded that the law be repealed because it is outdated, oppressive and has contributed congestion in prisons.

At Kazo, Mr Museveni cautioned Ugandans about HIV/Aids and recounted how he advised his children to put padlocks on their private parts as a precautionary measure.

He asked parents to sit down with their children and talk about the dangers of HIV/Aids.

Mr Museveni said that in Wakiso district 10 in every 100 people have HIV/Aids but that in Soroti and Karamoja only one in every 100 people has HIV/Aids.