Freedom not free for NUP’s jailed 16

But what’s the price as Olivia Lutaaya, 15 others plead guilty in Court Martial?

COVER STORY | IAN KATUSIIME | On Oct. 14 their boldness broke. After four years of Olivia Lutaaya and 15 other political prisoners refusing to plead guilty to alleged tramped up charges of unlawful possession of 13 pieces of explosive devices, and treachery at the General Court Martial, they finally gave in.

The brutal, dehumanizing, and long jail time they served and alleged carrots and coercion by one of President Yoweri Museveni’s most effective emissaries, Balam Barugahara; the new youthful Minister of Youth and Children Affairs, appear to have led to their change of plea.

Balam made a visit to Kitalya Maximum Security Prison two days before the dramatic change of plea where the final deal was hammered with the supporters of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) demonstrating the far reaching power of the state.

“This has not just happened. This has been the process of a year. They have been persuaded, coerced, told different things got several visits from the state; they have been telling us these things even this decision to plead guilty,” said George Musisi, the lawyer representing the NUP detainees.

The NUP lawyer added that he understood his clients’ motivation. “The first time we had these discussions with them about six months ago, I told them professionally, no lawyer can tell you to admit to a crime which you say you didn’t commit,” he said.

Musisi says the case at the GCM has gone on since June 2021 in over forty appearances where several bail applications were rejected.

It was a debilitating run for the sixteen who held onto hope every time they were hauled to the military court. They are Rashid Segujja, Robert Rugumayo, Muhymdin Kakooza, Simon Kijjambu, Abdul Matovu, Mesarch Kiwanuka, Ibrahim Wandera, Asbert Nagwere, Steven Musakulu, Sharif Matovu, Davis Mafabi, Livingstone Katushabe Kigozi, Swaibu Katabi, and Stanley Lwanga.

The group were arrested in November 2020 in Kalangala district while on the campaign trail of Robert Kyagulanyi, the president of NUP and presidential candidate during the 2021 elections. The state alleged that from various parts of the country, the sixteen were in unlawful possession of explosive devices contrary to Section 3 (1) and (2) of the Firearms Act.

Of those facing similar charges, nine did not budge according to NUP secretary general David Rubongoya. They are still remanded at the notorious Kitalya prison. They are Ssekitoleko Yasin Machete, Patrick Mwase, Sharif Kalanzi, Joseph Muwonge, Abdallah Kintu, Umar Emma Kato, Kavuma Musa, Jimmy Galukande and Gibusiwa Abdallah.

The group of political prisoners were mostly seen through Olivia Lutaaya, the 30-year old baby-faced mother of two who has stood in the dock at the General Court Martial in Makindye on numerous occasion over three years with a sullen look that belied a tough unbroken spirit whenever she spoke to the press. Over the years, she has become the face of the jailed NUP supporters whom the public has got to know as unbreakable die-hard supporters of their leader, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine.

But as happened for many of those who have appeared at the military court, including former Generals, her moment of crumbling came. It was possibly a matter of time as there is never a chance of walking out of the court with one’s held high as there are never acquittals at the Military General Court Martial. Only a confession or a plea for a pardon is accepted.

The case of the NUP members is not unlike that of political prisoners elsewhere: subjected to the most inhuman brutal prison conditions meant to break one’s spirit and compel them to ask for forgiveness from their tormentors. It is a well-known tactic used by governments.

For Olivia and others, the price was even higher. They were avowed members of the NUP which is red meat for the NRM government. NUP has posed a unique threat to the NRM state since it became a political party in 2020. Olivia and her co-accused have barely seen the fruits of NUP’s existence as a fully-fledged political party as most of them were arrested in 2020.

According to many political commentators, the state has employed coercion, detention, bribery, kidnaps in the quest to subdue NUP which has remained resilient in the face of adversity. Some NUP supporters have been killed.

Those still missing include John Bosco Kibalama, Ssesaazi Isma, Mustapha Luwemba, Hassan Mubiru, Martin Lukwago, John Damulira, Denis Zimula, Michael Semuddu, Muhammad Kanata, Shafik Wangolo, Musisi Mbowa, Vincent Nalumoso, George Kasumba, Moses Mbabazi, Yuda Sempijja, Alphat Muhumya, Peter Kirya, and Godfrey Kisemba.

Those detained are mostly political opponents who were rounded up in the period preceding the 2021 election where security forces killed over a hundred people during clashes with protestors.

“Many of them were abducted in 2019, 2020 and a few of them in 2021 meaning some of them have been missing for four years,” said David Lewis Rubongoya, the Secretary General of NUP during a High Court appearance in April.

Balam’s bargain

On Oct. 21, the sixteen will receive their sentencing. Treachery carries a sentence of a death penalty upon conviction. But Balam has since boasted to all and sundry that the guilty plea is what will grant the political prisoners a chance for freedom since some have already signed statements apologising to President Yoweri Museveni and distancing themselves from NUP.

“My next step is to advocate for lenient sentences and appeal to the President to consider pardoning them using the powers invested in him. I am hopeful that this matter will be resolved soon,” Balam told journalists at the GCM in Makindye.

For Balam, seven months on the job, the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) seem to be on a roll. In March, Balam appeared at State House Entebbe with Ali Kateregga, a member of NUP who is also a Masaka City local government councilor. He introduced Kateregga to President Museveni as someone willing to work with his government.

“Your Excellency, those young men were misled by politicians,” Kateregga told Museveni about the hordes of youth that identify with his nemesis Bobi Wine.

Kataregga was clad in a full chilly red suit of NUP colours complete with the red beret that the army claims is the very crime it is prosecuting some of the jailed persons for. It cites wearing of “government stores’ as the only reason the civilians are being prosecuted in a military court martial.

The President took a soft stance on the convert before him and promised to free those languishing in jail except for those on murder charges.

At the State House meeting Museveni requested for a list of those in detention and where they are jailed. Museveni’s request for the list of those missing was yet another episode of what the plight of missing persons has been. Asking for the list of the missing appears to have become a tactic of every authority involved; from the President to his ministers and government agencies.

The sixteen NUP supporters who pleaded guilty, including Olivia Lutaaya, may soon walk to freedom but those are just a fraction of the NUP members who remain unaccounted for.

The quest to free the missing NUP supporters has been plagued by intrigue. The issue of jailed NUP supporters has also become an issue in the party as NUP sell-out Mathias Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe DivisionMP in Masaka District, and others who have fallen out with NUP. This group says the political prisoners are a bargaining chip for some NUP politicians who use their fate as a fundraising plank in western capitals.

Others like Balaam have also jumped in and accused Bobi Wine of using the missing supporters for political gain and fundraising.

But Bobi Wine has hit back.

“Release them, release them so that my business fails,” he has said.

Bobi Wine has also stressed the point of the unbreakable spirit and resilience of his party supporters. At rally held at the Masaka Recreations Ground on May 31, for example, he saluted the people of Masaka for their bravery even as police closed roads and forced the event to be staged at a different venue.

“This train started long time ago and will not stop. Anyone who stands in its way, will just be bypassed,” he declared to ululations from the crowds which were teeming in a sea of red.

For the occasion, he spoke mainly in his native Luganda and draped in the outlawed red overalls with a beret to match. Even as they fought to free their jail members, Bobi Wine appeared determined to represent NUP as a party bent on capturing power in the upcoming 2026 elections.

The rally was preceded by a road show that paralysed sections of the Kampala-Masaka Highway. The mammoth crowds that thronged the event appeared to assert the dominance of the party wave that caused political upheavals in Greater Masaka in the 2021 elections.

NUP honchos like Secretary General Lewis Rubongoya, current LOP Joel Ssenyonyi, Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake, lawyer Benjamin Katana were part of the tour that reprised the one of last year. The second countrywide tour appears to have had less fanfare as police blocked a number of planned stopovers in eastern Uganda.

For some of the party faithful, the Masaka rally provided an opportunity to denounce Mathias Mpuuga, a former NUP vice president and MP for Mukungwe Nyendo, who was sacked by party president Bobi Wine in a bitter fallout. NUP has held rallies in the last two years meant to galvanise supporters and keep the People Power Movement alive. But Balam’s moves to force confessions as the price for freedom of the NUP supporters in the Court Martial shows President Museveni determination to break NUP’s spirit even if he cannot win its heart.