A senior six student was on Tuesday shot in the mouth by police as they dispersed rowdy vendors and hawkers at Kajja next to the Old Taxi Park.
Ms Lowena Nankya, a student of Lugazi Mixed School, was on her way to school in the company of her mother who also sustained a broken arm in the fracas.
This came after the Kampala Capital City Authority law enforcement officers working with police made a surprise operation in a bid to arrest the vendors and hawkers in the Kampala business centre.
Scores were arrested and the merchandise impounded following the scuffle between the two parties which forced the police to fire teargas and live bullets, one of which hit Nankya in the mouth.
“There were gunshots and I started to run with my child. In the process the bullet hit her,” Ms Irene Namaganda, the mother to Nankya, said.
“We are trying to establish the facts from the hospital whether she was hit by either a rubber or live bullet. She lost about five of her teeth,” Allan Mulindwa, Nankya’s uncle said yesterday.
Eyewitnesses said the police did not immediately take the girl to the hospital.
“I took the girl and her mother on a boda boda to Mulago hospital,” one of the eyewitnesses said.
Mr Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson said: “The law enforcement officers used some force, released teargas plus rubber and live bullets. Investigations have begun, and we shall take actions against the officers in the operation,” he said.
Mr Onyango said the area where police and KCCA officers conducted the operation is a private property, and after meeting the resistance from the vendors, the officers should have tactically withdrawn.
“We are looking at them footing a bill of about five million to replace the lost teeth, and then reconstructing her face,” Mr Mulindwa said.