Police in Uganda have arrested Mr Abbey Musinguzi aka Abitex, the events promoter that organised an end of year concert at Freedom City Mall where 10 people, including children, died in a stampede.
While addressing journalists at the police headquarters in Naguru on Monday, police spokesperson Fred Enanga said that they are also hunting for the other organisers who were part of the fateful event. He said the mall’s exits had been ordered shut by the promoters, leaving one open exit through which revellers squeezed through to watch fireworks.
“We have arrested the promoter of that New Year concert as we continue the hunt for other organisers and managers of the same concert,” he said.
Freedom City Mall in Kampala, Uganda.
Mr Enanga said that preliminary information indicates that more than 500 revellers gathered at Freedom City on December 31, 2022, in a musical concert that would see them usher in the New Year 2023.
“The celebrations were progressing well until that moment when the Master of Ceremonies (MC) recklessly made an announcement for the concertgoers to move out and watch the fireworks display as one of the indicators that the New Year had come,” he said.
However, although the venue has several entry and exit points, only one was open at the time and it was not enough to allow the large number of people who were rushing out to see the fireworks. This caused a stampede that led to the death of nine people on spot. The tenth person died on Sunday according to Mr Enanga.
He said they are now preferring charges of negligence against Abitex, as well as considering a rush and negligent act against parents of children below 18 years who died in this stampede.