The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | At least 11 people who had been recorded among the missing supporters of the National Unity Platform-NUP in Mukono North constituency have returned home two months after they were reported missing.
These were among the people who were reported missing during the peak of the campaigns in December 2020. The returnees include Juma Mukasa (20), Junior Kiberu, Muhammad Nahiru (24), Twaha Kagimu, Sula Kiwanuka (17), Isma Ssenkubuge, Abdul Karim Muganga, Joseph Kyakuwa Nkoyoyo (18), Male Musa, Fred Kamya Yuya and one only identified as Master.
Paul Kawombe, the Katoogo parish councillor says the victims were allegedly picked by armed security officers who were moving in numberless vehicles locally known as drones from the villages of Katoogo, Samuuka, Kisowera, Kabembe and Buntaba in the sub-counties of Nama and Kyampisi.
According to Kawombe, there are several other people from the area whose whereabouts remain unknown. These include; Stephen Ntulume, Muhammad Kanatta, Gaza Kharim, Muhammad Mutebi, Yuda Ssempijja (35) and Sowedi Lwanga. Another resident identified as Edward Sozzi was also reported missing days after the January 14 general election. His family says he was last seen in Mukono town.
Kawombe expresses dismay at reports that the victims were extremely tortured and dumped in forests in the districts of Wakiso, Mpigi and Masaka where they were found on Wednesday after receiving phone calls from good Samaritans. “They have not been charged in courts of law for any offence. But they instead just tortured them, we condemn that so much.”
Juma Mukasa, one of the victims from Katoogo village in Nama sub county narrates that they were blindfolded and beaten, they were also accused of being terrorists and taking part in the November riots that followed the arrest of NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi.
Muhammad Nahiru who was picked from Kisowera says that on the day of his arrest, he had gone to pick money from his workers. He recalls that he was arrested together with one of his customers from Bweyogerere, a suburb of Kampala who was working at a construction site in Kisowera.
Betty Nakabu, a grandmother to the three boys Juma Mukasa, Sula Kiwanuka and Joseph Kyakuwa blames the abductors for conducting operations at night.
On Thursday during an interview in her office at Nakasero, the Presidential advisor on political affairs, Lt. Gen. Proscovia Nalweyiso acknowledged that government forces had arrested some of the youths who participated in the November riots. Nalweyiso said the suspects were captured on CCTV camera engaging in violent acts and destruction of government installations.
*****
URN
