Torture chambers or safe houses?

The ISO director admitted that ISO operates some safe houses but noted that they are for keeping suspects safe but not torturing them. Kaka said the politicians and lawyers were out of touch with reality and that time will be the best judge.

“Those that are criticizing are out of touch with reality; some of them have been part and parcel of the mess that was going on,” he said, “When they hear the names Sobi they start getting worried.”

Bagyenda says safe houses have been around for many years adding that they are used for other purposes and not torturing suspects. He said between 2017 and 2018, they initiated an operation code-named “Dumisha Usalaama,” in which hundreds of criminals were arrested but noted that six months later, 80% of these people  (criminals) had returned to the streets to terrorize the public.

Kaka said their investigations found out that the criminals were part of a well networked syndicate including lawyers, the judiciary and police officers noting that these had helped the criminals released.

“I said we could not sit like clowns and watch this happen. We built intelligence positions on these groups and started harvesting the cream or hardcore criminals but at the same time had to protect our assets who gave us information about the criminals.”

Kaka said it is at this time that safe houses became more prominent but noted that they are used to protect suspects whose life is in danger or their assets are threatened.”

But Nicholas Opio, the executive director of Chapter Four, Kampala-based civil liberties non-profit told The Independent that the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force do not have the legal mandate to run gazetted places of detention.

Opio told The Independent on Sept. 26 that since safe houses are opaque by nature, it is difficult to know how many are in operation. Still, he said, Chapter Four has recorded up to 12 safe houses scattered around Kampala, Wakiso and Mpigi.

“Nobody allows you access to them so the stories you get are normally from people who have survived detention,” he says.

“We know for example that ‘Block C’ at the CMI headquarters in Mbuya, a Kampala suburb has an underground detention facility where close associates of Kale Kayihura are being detained.”

“We know this because somebody came out of there.”

Opio told The Independent that Chapter Four intends to sue the directors of the security institutions for running safe houses or places that are not gazetted for detention.

Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) insists that unlawful pre-trial detention exposes suspects to human rights violations such as torture, deprivation of personal liberty, right to the health and adequate standard of living.

Sewanyana said the causes of unlawful pre-trial detention include but are not limited to arrest before investigation, poor implementation of the mandatory bail and lack of investigative capacity.

Sewanyana told The Independent that in the coming months FHRI will work with security agencies including the UPDF, CMI, ISO to make them understand “that much as we are asking them to act tough on crime, we also need to ensure that there are measures that uphold the rights of offenders.”

Dr. Fred Sekindi, the head of research, advocacy and lobbying at FHRI told The Independent that when the writers of the 1995 Constitution insisted on protecting the right to personal liberty, they had Uganda’s ‘horrible’ history in mind.

“The framers of our Constitution had our history in mind in trying to fasten the right to personal liberty, in saying that it would be violated if you are not kept in a place authorized by law, in saying that you must have access to a lawyer, in saying that you must be told the reason why you are being detained and in saying that you must not be detained longer than 48 hours; they thought of where we came from and wanted us not to go back.”

“There is no other right in the Constitution that attracts compensation when breached other than the right to personal liberty,” Sekindi told The Independent, “ That is quite unique and I think they looked at where we came from.”

“They looked at the thousands of Ugandans under President Idi Amin who were picked off the streets and thrown into detention facilities without committing any offence.”

Sekindi says Uganda’s Constitution clearly defines the places where Ugandans or anybody within Uganda can be detained. It is in a gazetted place and it is up to the government to declare a place a gazetted place for detention.

Sekindi told The Independent that the purpose of gazetting places of detention is important for the suspects and their families.

“If you are my relative, I know where to find you, if you are my lawyer, you know where to find me or if the detained person needs a doctor, then they know where to find them.”

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