When Amuria District Woman MP Margaret Etilu, a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), was reportedly abducted in mid-June and spent several days incommunicado, with questions about safety lingered in the minds of many Ugandans.
Etilu was allegedly found at one of the residences of former Speaker of Parliament Anita Annet Among during a security operation in which agencies searched properties and seized vehicles and other valuables.
Sources indicated that Etilu, together with other legislators, had become a regular resident at the home of the embattled Bukedea Woman MP, raising questions as to whether they were possible accomplices or merely collateral damage in the ongoing investigations.
The incident followed another unlikely abduction involving Buyaga County MP Barnabas Tinkasimire, who was reportedly seized from a petrol station in Wandegeya, Kampala, last year after losing his party primaries and while seeking signatures to impeach Speaker Among.
Analysts say abductions have become so synonymous with opposition politics that many people no longer consider it major news when a supporter of the National Unity Platform (NUP) disappears.
“As they say, in a sinking ship, whoever is on board is a candidate for death by drowning. And it has never been truer for Uganda that violence begets more violence, and lawlessness only begets more lawlessness,” says political commentator Yusuf Sserunkuma.
At a police function, former Internal Affairs Minister Gen Kahinda Otafiire, while commenting on what he described as arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings, urged leaders and state officials to speak out against what he called injustices.
Borrowing the words of prominent German pastor Martin Niemöller, Otafiire said:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
While handing over the Ministry of Internal Affairs to his successor, Ephraim Kamuntu, Otafiire reiterated the same concern, arguing that the new minister should not remain silent about alleged extrajudicial killings linked to Crime Intelligence operations.
All government agencies charged with speaking for the government had not responded to our messages and also did not pick our numerous cellular phone calls on their known numbers.
When asked how the government was protecting citizens and why members of the ruling party appeared not to have been shielded from such incidents, a senior government official declined to comment.
“Please excuse me on that matter. I kindly don’t have a comment on it and I don’t know what to tell you right now. Please excuse me,” he said before ending the phone call.
Dr Fredrick Golooba Political Scientist from Makerere University says, “The wanton abductions involving opposition politicians and their supporters have been possible and difficult to stop because of a breakdown in law and order, occasioned by systematic undermining and weakening of institutions of the state.”
“The abductions involving ruling party members and supporters are linked to the same weakening and undermining of institutions of the state. Had parliament and the courts of law asserted themselves against the abduction and disappearance and arbitrary detention of opposition politicians and their supporters, others would have been safe from similar treatment,” he added.
Opposition Laments
During a press conference at Parliament on Wednesday, Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi opened his address—largely focused on the abduction of former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago—by noting that
many people had previously assumed only NUP members would bear the brunt of enforced disappearances.
“You see when we have been lamenting about our people being abducted, some of the leaders came out to support or seem to insinuate that NUP members have always had wrong things they do, but eventually there is no one safe. We hope that the government can come out strongly on this matter because we have our supporters who have been missing now coming to seven years,” Ssenyonyi said.
Shortly after Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba posted a picture of Lukwago on his X platform following the latter’s abduction, one user responded:
“Afande, ingaha ingaha ingaha! For God’s sake, this is uncalled for. We can do it to the NUP foot soldiers, the Mumbiros, but not the person of Erias Lukwago. This is a broken heart.”
The user added: “Kaka angu, siusema tuonge swahili, hapa tumezidi, wewe pamoja nasisi
wafusi wako jamani.”
Loosely translated, the message expressed concern that the situation had gone too far, even for some of Muhoozi’s supporters.
Lukwago was picked from his Wakaliga home in Kampala on Monday morning as he prepared to serve Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba in a lawsuit that four-time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye had instructed his legal team to pursue.
For close to six years, reports from the National Unity Platform, Uganda’s largest opposition party, indicate that more than 5,000 party members have at some point been victims of enforced disappearances.
More abductions
As the country was still processing Lukwago’s abduction and subsequent charging with misprision of treason, reports emerged 24 hours later that NUP media activist Andrew Natumanya, popularly known as Tabz, had
also been abducted after being picked up from Kamwokya in Kampala.
NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, responded:
“You can abduct and torture Ninye Tabz but you cannot break his resolve. This does not show the strength of the regime; it only exposes how weak and decadent it is. We stand with you, my brother. Just like the Amin regime, one day all this will be history.”
During the recent operations involving the former Speaker of Parliament, Tabz played a prominent role in providing real-time updates on developments and anticipated raids through his X platform. Many of the updates later proved accurate.
Sources within both government and opposition circles claimed that Tabz may have been receiving intelligence from individuals within the security establishment. However, these claims could not be
independently verified.
“That was information that was only known to a few members within the National Security Council, and it was well coordinated. The plug that was left was a social media person who could be used as the breaker of the information,” said one source who preferred anonymity.
Sserunkuma argues that the country is experiencing a difficult
political transition.
“I think we are going through the throes of a transition, and it has become messy, especially with Muhoozi Kainerugaba seeking to establish authority with the only way he knows—military might.”
Dr Golooba says, “There are also questions about the ruling party and its leadership. What are its values? What are the principles on which it is built? Why is it unable to intervene and press for the abuses to
stop?”
