The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
They say soldiers used Kawempe by-election to instill fear but this is a job they signed-up for
ANALYSIS | RONALD MUSOKE | Abubaker Lubowa, a senior photojournalist at Daily Monitor, has over the last decade distinguished himself in photographing some of the most tumultuous political events. Even as many of those events often turned violent, he has always gone back home largely unscathed.
But it appears his luck ran out on March 13, during the Kawempe North by-election. Hooded security operatives pounced on him and other journalists, shunted them into a waiting van and beat them, some to near death.
When we spoke, almost a week after the ordeal, Lubowa was still nursing wounds and, he said, his left leg suffers periodic paralysis. “In the past, we have faced the wrath of police; where they grab you, throw you in a van and take you to their cells and later release you. But this time, I was beaten,” he said.
Harassment of journalists during high-stakes elections is not new in Uganda. Gilbert Sendugwa is the Executive Director of the African Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC), a Kampala-based pan-African civil society network that prmotes the right of access to information, transpanrency and accountability.
He told The Independent that in the aftermath of the 2021 general elections, AFIC conducted a monitoring of electoral violence survey in 63 districts. The study found 118,503 incidents of violence during that election cycle.
“Journalists, unfortunately, were among the top four victims,” he said, adding that: “Security agencies, in this case the Uganda Police Force, were identified as the main perpetrators of violence.”
Sendugwa told The Independent that journalists’ coverage of political events is very important because it is a means through which citizens access information.
Premeditated attacks on journalists
Past violent attacks by members of the security forces have mostly appeared to be unpremeditated and precipitated by adrenaline spikes. But not this time.
“We have seen things on social media where, you know, officials are celebrating the beating of journalists; celebrating those who have beaten journalists. If the violators think that, that is right or they are being praised for crimes that they commit, then this is going to escalate,” said Sendugwa.
In the past, while defending their brutal attacks, security officials have said some of the journalists have been beaten because they don’t wear branded apparel which easily makes them standout from the crowd.
But the journalists The Independent has talked to for this story say the recent events of the Kawempe North by-election extinguished those claims. Lubowa told The Independent: “From the moment the security operatives arrived on the scene, it appears they knew who exactly they were after.”
He said the journalists were huddled together, as they had been trained, and hoped they would be safe. Anyone could see easily that they were journalist as their PRESS jackets and other hi-vis showed. Instead, the security operatives walked straight to where the journalists were gathered and started grabbling them and their equipment including cameras and mobile phones.
“They were actually looking for and picking up whoever was branded as press,” Lubowa told The Independent.
Young journalist kicked in the groin
Steven Kibwiika, a television journalist working with Spark TV, an affiliate of Nation Media Group, experienced his nightmare, a day earlier (March 12) when following a tip-off about an alleged vote rigging at a private house in Nameere village, he tagged along with officials of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP).
In the fracas that ensued, Kibwiika was hit on the head, kicked in the groin, beaten with a baton until it broke. In some of the footage that was captured at the house, Kibwiika is seem attempting to flee towards the exit but suddenly collapses in a heap near the gate.
In total, eight journalists from the Nation Media Group (NTVU, Spark TV, and Daily Monitor) and NBS TV were brutally beaten during polling day. They included; Hanifa Nanvuma, Abubaker Lubowa, David Ijjo, Dennis Kabugo, Raymond Tamale, Hakim Wampamba, Hassan Wasswa, and Francis Isano.
Earlier, on Feb. 26, Miracle Ibrahim of Top TV, Steven Kibwiika of Spark TV and Stephen Mbidde of NTVU were covering the by-election’s nomination process when soldiers of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT) attacked them and beat them up.
A case of déjà vu
For Milton Emmy Akwam, the Managing Editor of The Northern Daily News (TND), an online regional platform operating from the northern city of Lira, what he saw during the Kawempe North by-election “points to a dark future of journalism in Uganda.” “The battering of colleagues was extreme,” he told The Independent.
But, Derrick Wandera and Culton Scovia Nakamya who faced similar harassment during the 2021 general election campaigns, the beatings in the Kawempe North by-election mirrored the events of the 2021 campaigns.
“These incidents certainly mirror what happened in the 2021 election and I know that they are a precursor to the 2026 election,” says Derrick Wandera, an experienced political reporter at Daily Monitor. “In 2021, we were beaten, we were arrested and I was arrested, I was beaten. I saw my friends being beaten and we were all maimed.”
But, he says, that was different. He says in 2021 police could say journalists were caught in crossfire, that they were ‘collateral damage.’
“For instance, when we were beaten in Luuka District, we were in the middle of things, I mean, action was so tense and the pulling and pushing of the supporters of Bobi Wine and the security was at centre stage and we were in the thick of the action.”
“Some of us ended up being beaten; the same thing happened in Masaka, when Ashraf Kasirye was hit. There was this confrontation happening and we got into it, we were trying to film, we were trying to record, we were trying to get those moments and we got beaten. The same happened in Kalangala. I was taken into custody, spent several hours in a cell.”
However, Wandera told The Independent that when one juxtaposes that and what happened in Kawempe North, there is a glaring difference. “There is a group of supporters and voters this side and there’s a group of journalists the other side and in the middle is the security.
The security then quickly turns their barrels to the journalists, that’s what happened in Kawempe. “In Kawempe, there is no explanation of ‘collateral damage,’ rather, the journalists are a target, a super target.”
“You see the supporters there, you see the journalists here and you go for the journalists, beat them and name them, take their cameras and stuff like that,” Wandera says, “You’re suffocating what is called relaying the events as they happen, trying to cut down the information flow to the public.”
No random attack
The Uganda Editors’ Guild also said in a March 14 statement that the brutal assault of distinctly labelled journalists and the destruction of their cameras and other equipment was no “random attack.”
“It was premeditated and intended to punish or otherwise deter journalists from covering the by-election. It was sought to create a chilling environment of self-censorship ahead of the 2026 general elections. We condemn these acts of professional and psychological terror in the strongest terms possible,” the Editor’s Guild said.
“We have seen the level of violence in recent years increasing, especially against the journalists. We saw this in 2021. Now we are heading to 2026 and Kawempe has shown us that this can be done,” Sylivia Nankya, the Secretary of the Uganda Editors’ Guild, told The Independent.
The Uganda Editors’ Guild has separately written to the Chief of Defence Forces and the Inspector General of Police demanding dialogue. “We remain open to dialogue to find a genuine and sustainable mechanism for ending this unfortunate and perennial pattern of senseless violence,” notes a statement from the Uganda Editors’ Guild.
Several organizations including the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME), the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda, the Uganda Law Society, Chapter Four and the Uganda Editors’ Guild have since condemned the brutality meted out on the journalists. They say the targeted attacks on journalists and media practitioners undermines press freedom and is a violation of human dignity.
“The government authorities should take immediate action to end impunity for crimes against journalists, especially during the electoral processes,” said Anthony Masake, the Executive Director of Chapter Four. “Paying lip service to previous crimes against journalists emboldens perpetrators to continue to unleash terror on the press.”
The Uganda Law Society (ULS) said the decision of media houses to withdraw their journalists from covering the election due to safety concerns is a clear indication of the direct attack to press freedom and the current state of lawlessness and impunity in the country.
The ULS said it will join all peaceful actors in demanding that the Uganda Police Force, the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF), the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT) and all other security agencies, immediately cease all acts of violence against journalists and the general public.
Media freedom not a privilege
“The security officers responsible for these heinous acts must be held accountable and immediate action must be taken to investigate and prosecute those involved,” said Anthony Asiimwe, the ULS vice president. “We will not stand by as the rule of law is trampled upon. We demand justice, accountability, and the immediate restoration of media freedom and democracy in Uganda.”
“Media freedom is not a privilege, it is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 29 of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. We further remind the government that the continued erosion of constitutional freedoms will not go unchallenged.”
According to the ULS, the deliberate suppression of journalists is an attack on every Ugandan’s right to access information, hold leaders accountable, and participate in governance. “It’s a disgrace that those entrusted with maintaining security have become the very agents of terror and intimidation.”
Looking ahead to 2026
The attacks on journalists have sparked tough discussions among reporters and photojournalists and among media managers, and human rights defenders in offices and boardrooms. Tough questions are being asked about how to cover the forthcoming 2026 general election without endangering lives.
Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana, the Executive Director of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, says it appears instilling fear has become “a weapon in Uganda’s elections.”
“In the past, we have had incidents of ballot stuffing and other abuses but now it is about instilling fear in the electorate,” he said. “We saw masked men beating people mercilessly without the fear of being exposed.”
“This all demonstrates that elections have become a do or die affair. I think the ruling party, the NRM, has lost support and yet it still wants to show that it still has support. This is a clear indicator of a worrying trend and it points to a violent 2026 election.”
Sewanyana says if the perpetrators go unpunished, Ugandans will increasingly see elections as a meaningless exercise. “The perpetrators will see this as a cue to mete out more violence during the election campaigns; they will interpret this as a licence to torture and kill. After all, in 2021, they did the same and they were not apprehended.”
Robert Ssempala, the Eexecutive Director of the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda says any attempt to suppress information is futile. “The world is an open book and anyone can capture and share information from anywhere,” he says.
Ssempala says there is still time to change the course of events through strategic engagement with key actors in both the electoral and media spaces. He insists the Uganda Police Force must reclaim their role and ensure that elections are seen as peaceful activities, not war zones. “Silencing the press is silencing democracy,” he says.
‘Journalism is being tested’
“I feel journalism is being tested, it’s a real test for journalism. Do you stop covering that story or do you also invent new tactics, because not every conversation with these guys is going to stop them from doing that at all(beating),” says Derrick Wandera of Daily Monitor.
Wandera is convinced that what the country has witnessed during the Kawempe North by-election will happen when the 2026 general election cycle begins in earnest. “A journalist who has covered Kawempe should be having a clear picture of how to behave when they’re in the 2026 election,” he says.
Four years ago, Wandera says, the journalists used to move in a group. “This time, it may perhaps not be prudent to do the same,” he says. Same thing with wearing Press branded apparels.
“In the past it has been that wearing branded clothing helps to protect you, you’re identifiable, you’re not going to get into those direct shots, but now if you wear them, you are identifiable, the very reason you’re going to be picked and beaten.”
Culton Scovia Nakamya, formerly of BBS Terefayina and currently on study leave in the UK experienced the wrath of Uganda’s security agencies during the 2021 election cycle. She told The Independent 2026 is going to be a “really muddy, thorny road for journalists.”
“I don’t even have the best word to describe what they will face, but I hope the Kawempe North by-election has really given them direction on how they have to prepare, both mentally, physically, and in terms of the equipment to use.”
Charting clear strategy
When news of hooded security operatives beating up journalists on polling day spread, anxious heads of media houses reacted. Daniel Kalinaki, the Nation Media Group’s Managing Director of Editorial in Uganda announced on X that the Nation Media Group had taken the difficult decision to withdraw its journalists from the field citing safety concerns.
Next Media Group, which operates several platforms including NBS television, also announced it was pulling its journalists out.
But Nakamya says both media managers and media owners have to face the hard reality that withdrawing journalists is not an option. “That would be betrayal to Ugandans; they would have denied the people of Uganda the right to know,” she says.
She says, however, the media managers have to go into the 2026 election with a clear strategy. She says, from experience, there will be a group of journalists covering the camp of the ruling party, the NRM, who will be fully protected and another group of journalists covering the opposition candidates with no guarantee of going back to their homes that day.
New tactics needed
“So the thing is ensuring that as we go into this election, journalists also have to put at the back of their minds, their safety, Nakamya told The Independent. “How is my safety? What am I looking for in this election as a person?”
She says the kind of equipment to use during the upcoming elections will also have to be taken into consideration. “If the company cannot provide you a camera that allows you to shoot at a given distance, they are risking your life and that’s not worth it,” she says.
She says not only political parties, security agencies, or NRM, pose a danger to journalists. The opposition does too.
Nakamya says: “For example, people are going to take journalists and tell them there is a story at this location. As editors, you must pay attention. What is the location? Where are they going? Which journalistic principles are involved? Are we breaking any law? Are we compromising any safety standards? If they are taking you to somebody’s house because there is some criminal activity going on, have you done a risk assessment?”
Sylvia Nankya, the Secretary of the Uganda Editors’ Guild says media houses should provide safety training to staffers. “Let them know what to do, equip them, give them the safety gear that they need to have before they go to cover elections,” she says.
“Part of the training that we want to provide, the safety training, is to ensure that journalists do not take sides,” she says. She says they have seen journalists becoming part of political camps, which puts them in harm’s way.
“Because if you go to cover a rally, a political rally, let’s say it’s organised by the National Unity Platform, and you’re dressed in red, when they are beating NUP supporters, how will they spare you?”
“We also want to equip them to have a sense of judgement, because sometimes identifying as a journalist can also be dangerous. So, when you get to the field, when you see the situation changing, must you maintain your press jacket or is it time to take it off?” she says.
‘Journalism must go on’
Lubowa agrees with most of what Nankya says. He says the recent harassment and torture by the security forces will not stop him to do his work. “I think they wanted to instill fear in us but this is a job that we signed-up for,” he told The Independent, insisting on the important work of informing the masses.
Yet, he says, it is important for the media managers to have candid discussions with the security agencies on how to work together safely. “We both need each other,” Lubowa told The Independent. “There is no point of them looking at us as enemies and us looking at them in the same way.”
