The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
YEAR IN REVIEW: May 2017
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Today, when many Ugandans hear the word ‘Nalufenya’, torture is what quickly comes to mind. Nalufenya – the special investigations center of the police is located at the River Nile breach crossing in Jinja, eastern Uganda.
It mostly handles suspects charged with terrorism, abetting terrorism, aggravated robbery and murder. It came into the spot light on May 11, when grim pictures of tortured Kamwenge Town Council Mayor Geoffrey Byamukama broke in the media.
Byamukama, who had been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the brutal murder of Police Spokesperson AIGP Andrew Felix, had deep wounds on the knees and ankles which he allegedly sustained during torture at Nalufenya.
He was allegedly hit with batons and iron bars to extract confessions from him. Then stories of many other tortured suspects also came out causing an outcry. Members of Parliament visited to investigate.
Some political prisoners and journalists; such editors of the Red Pepper tabloid were also detained there on allegations of publishing information prejudicial to national security.
May 19: Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) had set May19 as the deadline for all Ugandans to register their SIM-cards or get switched off.
This caused panic to many who had not beat the deadline. As a result, parliament as proposed by leader of opposition Winnie Kizza passed a resolution calling for a validation exercise to be extended but this was never considered by the commission.
It was until the president issued a directive that the deadline was extended to August.
