FDC demands unconditionally release of greater Masaka election coordinators

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT | The opposition Forum for Democratic Change –FDC party has petitioned the Civil Division of High Court demanding the unconditional release of their two election coordinators from greater Masaka Region. They are former boxing champion, Justine Juuko and Garypo Mayanja, who are in charge of managing the FDC presidential, parliamentary and local government campaigns in greater Masaka Region ahead of the 2021 polls.   

According to copies of the documents prepared by the party lawyers led by Isaac Ssemakadde from the Center for Legal Aid, both Juuko and Mayanja were forcefully picked by intelligence officers in Kyazanga and whisked off to unknown destination on December 12, 2020. In a sworn affidavit, the Deputy FDC Secretary-General, Harold Kaija, says that he searched for the two in gazetted detention centers in Masaka including the barracks and Central Police Stations among others to establish their whereabouts in vain.  

According to Kaija, he was advised by security in Masaka that since the duo was participating in opposition politics, he should check with the Director Generals of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, Internal Security Organization, Inspector General of Police, the Director of Criminal Investigations Department of Police and the Commandant Special Investigations Bureau Kireka.

Kaija says that he visited CMI, Kireka and CID headquarters but was denied access to the detention facilities to ascertain whether the two-party officials were there. He has now sued the five security heads and the Attorney General, saying the detention of their coordinators without presenting them in court violates their Constitutional right to liberty and fair hearing. 

He the suspects have neither been granted access to their families nor doctors, which is unlawful.  According to Kaija, the arrest of their coordinators has affected their party activities. Kaija asks the court to issue an order directing the government and security agencies to release their coordinators and unconditionally in the interest of justice. 

URN has since established from the suspect’s lawyer, Isaac Ssemakadde that Mayanja was released from Kireka on police bond after being charged with inciting violence. “He was tortured in military custody. We

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URN