By Umaru Kashaka
Detectives at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) are evaluating Democratic Party (DP) president Norbert Mao’s complaint that four members of a comedy group, known as Bizonto, are threatening to kill him.
Mao, who has contested against President Yoweri Museveni twice without success, on March 7, filed a formal complaint with the CID against what he called the “hate-mongering NUP/KY (National Unity Platform/Kabaka Yekka) choir known as Bizonto comedy”.
He alleged in a tweet that the comedians threatened his life in their skit posted on YouTube recently.
“They used all sorts of innuendo to sully my character and ended by threatening to kill me,” the 54-year-old lawyer by profession, wrote. He posted the video of the alleged skit to drive his point home.
The CID spokesperson, Charles Twiine, confirmed on Tuesday that Mao had filed the complaint against Bizonto.
Bizonto group members in 2020
“He has reported a case and like any other Ugandan, he wants justice. We are going to establish whether the acts allegedly done by the Bizonto reveal any form of crime because sometimes some of the complaints may not reveal any crime committed,” he told The Kampala Sun.
Twiine also said they are going to establish whether the purported suspects are the real ones that Mao is accusing.
“The moment we establish that they are the ones and their actions were criminal in nature, then we shall inevitably commence investigations,” he said.
He, however, condemned any form of attack on a person or institution using comedy on social media.
“If we don’t take action against the perpetrators, it may eventually incite the public to cause genocide, for example,” Twiine added.
What Bizonto allegedly said
In the skit, which has since gone viral on social media, Bizonto allege that a man whom they refer to as “Owa kakooti from Mau Mau rebellion” was given money to destroy the Opposition in Uganda.
They claim that he has become a problem and vow not to leave him to abuse politicians in the Opposition.
They also claim that man hates people belonging to the Baganda ethnic tribe. “We know that you talk and abuse a lot and that you mince no words, but dare not hit back at us because we will knock your teeth out,” the comedians are heard vowing in the skit.
Mao, who recently provoked accusations when he accused some opposition leaders of shady dealings and hobnobbing with the ruling government, thinks he is the one being referred to here.
On February 20, Mao said the “war to cleanse the synagogue” is going to last at least two years!”
“How can corrupt and hypocritical masqueraders turn politics into a bastion for blackmail, slander and hate-mongering? The merchants of hate will decide when this will end,” he wrote on Twitter on February 20.
