Six American tourists and their driver were on Friday detained for nearly three hours for allegedly taking pictures of Speaker Anita Among’s Bukedea Comprehensive School.

The Monitor has learnt that the tourists—who also run a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Arlington Academy of Hope Uganda (AAH) and Reach for Uganda, which support students in Bukedea Comprehensive School and other schools in the country—were travelling from Sipi Falls to Murchison Falls National Park for a holiday.

Upon reaching the school, the president of one of the NGOs identified as Mr Richard Dick Burk is said to have asked the driver to slow down. We understand that Mr Burk wanted his colleagues to see the school some of the organisation’s beneficiaries attend.

 “The watchman came from inside the gate with a stick, barking at us. I told him, ‘this is one of the sponsors’, he said, ‘no, no, no, no, don’t take pictures.’ We had not even stopped and no one had left the vehicle,” our source disclosed.

The group that was travelling in a vehicle labelled “tourist van” resumed its journey upon the confrontation, but was later flagged down by a traffic officer identified as ASP Joseph Okia. This, we understand, was at Kapir, Ngora District, about 15km to Soroti. The officer allegedly told the group he had received calls to intercept the vehicle.

The group then spent over an hour as the officer, who had intercepted them, and two of his colleagues, made and received multiple phone calls, including with the Bukedea District Police Commander, Mr Richard Asiimwe. The group was then asked to drive back to Bukedea, approximately 50km, where they spent more than two hours being interrogated by the DPC, the deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC), the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), and the officer-in-charge (OC) Prisons, among other officials.

“We were in the office of the DP where he asked us to give our side of the story after listening to some people from the school. The president (of the NGO) explained that we did not even stop. We asked if we were under arrest, but he said no, and continued asking if we had trespassed,” our source said

“The president told them he knew the Speaker, and sponsored some students in that school. We asked them to call the secretary of the school, but they declined and called some director, who confirmed knowledge of the individuals,” the source added.

As phone calls continued going around, the authorities yielded and released them after taking photos of their passports and identity cards.

“We did not know this would take us three hours. We were supposed to reach here [Murchison Falls National Park] by 4pm or 5pm. We reached here at 8pm,” our source said

“They were upset, saying, there’s nothing we did wrong…they have two primary schools, and they’re constructing a secondary school. They have been up and down, mobilising people, inspecting the work which the contractors are doing there. They had just started their holiday,” the source added.

Efforts to reach the DPC of Bukedea were futile by press time.

Mr Rusoke Kituuma, the new police spokesperson, said he was not aware of the said developments and promised to share if any information reached his desk.

One of the administrators at the school identified as Samuel Odong, whose contacts were obtained from the Internet, denied knowledge of the incident.

Efforts to reach the Speaker’s spokesperson, Joseph Sabiti, were futile by press time.

Mr Chris Obore, the director of Communications and Public  Affairs  at Parliament, confirmed the incident

“Ten of them were driving towards Soroti but on reaching around the school, they slowed down trying to take pictures of the school. School security advanced to them to find out what was the issue, they pretended to park their car on the side, then sped-off. It raised suspicion and police pursued them. They were intercepted and brought to Bukedea Police Station where they were interviewed. They could not explain why sponsors would not enter the school like anyone else.

They were let go because the photos of the school are already public anyway, so them taking photos was not a big deal.

But their behaviour raised security concerns,” he said.