“Ugandan police strip searched me in an interrogation”

Joy Doreen Biira was arrested at her rural home in Kasese, Uganda for talking videos of a military operation that happened at a tribal king’s palace.

The KTN anchor spent a night in a Ugandan police station and was only released after being subjected to intense interrogation.

Also read: Heartbreaking photo of newlywed KTN anchor walking barefoot at Ugandan police station

In an interview with Betty Kyallo last night December 2, Joy Doreen narrated her ordeal in the hands of Ugandan police.

She says she was locked in a cell that was darker than hell together with four other ladies. She only released there were four of them after they were taken out to take a bath.

Doreen also revealed the Ugandan police took her to her uncle’s homestead where she was interrogated for filming the bloody military operation.

She was subjected to extreme body search as the police were looking for memory cards that had been used in a camera by her husband to record Ugandan soldiers raiding the king’s palace.

The KTN anchor revealed she was hit at the back before a female officer stripped searched her. N/B: Uganda police are used to subjecting women to extreme body search as witnessed in March 2016 where women were ‘caressed’ during a football match between Uganda and Burkina Faso at the Mandela National stadium, Namboole.

Doreen says that a senior male office instructed a junior female police to search her boobs and private parts for hidden memory cards.

“There is one who said if you don’t tell us you know we could actually finish you off. We could actually just kill you. Coz you better start talking. The faster you talk the faster this get done. And then one of them actually hits me with a gun in my backside. And so I tripped and fell down and then he said just open up her top and check for the memory cards, we need to know where those memory cards are. There was a lady officer there who unzipped my top and then checks all the way through my bra to figure out if there were memory cards in there. So she couldn’t find them and then one of the officers there said take her and check her everywhere, check her private parts wherever it is as long as you get those memory cards. So I said I actually don’t have the memory cards. So you know the threats were there and people saying things like oh you know these journalists they are just very disturbing. Every time they are trying to disorganize us when we are trying to do our jobs. There were words that were very insulting that were said… Things like oh you know these ones they are just pretending to be journalists but some of them could even be prostitutes,” Joy Doreen Biira told Betty Kyallo.

Watch the complete interview below:

Friday Briefing: Guest Anchor Joy Doreen Biira