The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Iganga, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Satirical novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has finally been released.
Kakwenza who is facing charges of offensive communication was re-arrested from Kitalya prison on Wednesday shortly after Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate, Douglas Singiza granted him bail. It was not clear why he was re-arrested.
However, his wife Eva Basiima says that Kakwenza was taken to their home in Iganga district at around 3 am. He has now been taken to the hospital for treatment of torture wounds allegedly inflicted on him during his time in custody.
“He has scars which are healing but he was complaining of pain in his internal organs. He told me not to reveal the hospital and you know he was also ordered by court not to talk to journalists over this case so you cannot talk to him,” Basiima told Uganda Radio Network on phone.
Basiima added that the family has also vacated their home in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb after the landlord told them that he couldn’t stand a tenant with ‘issues.’ This is the home that Kakwenza was arrested from on December 28, 2021, and later arraigned before the court on charges of offensive communication.
It is alleged that Kakwenza used his Twitter handle @KakwenzaRukira to post a series of tweets about President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his son Lt General Muhoozi Kainerugaba with no purpose of legitimate communication. In one of the tweets, Kakwenza refers to the President as an election thief and in another, he calls Muhoozi overweight and intellectually bankrupt.
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There should be seriousness in investigating these never-ending tortures of suspects. We have heard of several torture cases of arrested political activists (or offenders). Who does this and what power does that person have to under the law?