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Monday 20 April 2020
Harassed for exposing the Neo-liberal Ugandan Dictator : Court orders security to produce critical book writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija: Besigye sister Dr Olive Kobusingye launches book on Uganda’s sick health sector & dead politics
Detained. Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Courtesy photo
In Summary
According to counsel Kiiza, the book in question, talks
about a key character known as "Kayibanda", dictator who clings to power
and is greedy and incompetent.
In further summarising what the
book is all about, counsel Kiiza said Kayibanda ruled for 43 years and
was succeeded by a new leader, who appoints people on merit and he quits
power and hands over successfully and peacefully.
Court orders security to produce critical book writer
The
High Court in Kampala has this evening, ordered the top security
including the director of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), to
produce the missing critical book writer, Mr Kakwenza Rukirabashaija
before it on April 27.
Other security organs which the
court directed its orders are; the Inspector General of Police, the
Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and the Attorney General in his capacity
as the chief government legal adviser .
Mr Kakwenza, the author of a book "The Greedy Barbarian" went missing on Easter Monday.
According
to a family friend, Mr Wartson Atukwasize, in his affidavit before
court, claims Mr Kakwenza was arrested by operatives from CMI.
This,
he says was after a group of them, five in number, stormed his home in
Iganga at around 2.30pm, demanded for his cell phone and laptop before
bundling him into a waiting white government car.
He
told court that the continued detention of his friend beyond the
constitutional 48 hours was illegal, hence seeking for his release and
freedom.
"Upon reading the notion of Mr Kakwenza dated
the 15th day of April 2020 and the affidavit in support and upon hearing
from his counsel Mr Eron Kiiza, it's hereby ordered that a writ of
habeas corpus is directed at the Attorney General, Inspector General of
Police, Chief of Defence Forces, director of CMI to have the body of
Kakwenza produced before the High Court at Kampala on the 27th April
2020," justice Esta Nambayo ordered
Journalist Justus
Muhanguzi Kampe reports death threats over Rwanda Genocide book
Dr.
Olive Kobusingye on Friday launched her new book “The Patient” tackling the
ailing Ugandan health sector.
The
successful launch was attended by medical professionals who gathered in Katonga
hall, Serena Hotel in Kampala.
Kobusingye, herself a medical practitioner and prolific author, is
the brain behind the book that graphically illustrates the sacrifices
and greed in Uganda’s health sector and honours the heroism of men and
women who do their best to work in a collapsed system.
Dr Stella Nyanzi attended the launch
Based
on interviews with genius health workers helping patients in a chronically sick
system, Kobusingye’s Book chronicles the highs and lows of Uganda’s health
delivery system from the times modern medicine was founded in Uganda, through
turbulent times to now when it has totally collapsed, incapable of treating the
sick.
Victoria University
Opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who is also elder
brother, seized the moment to directly address the majority elite
medical professionals.
Besigye
“Health
is politics. Our health system collapsed because our politics failed,” Besigye
said.
“The
greatest challenge we face as a country is the silence of the elites to these
things.”
Besigye added: “Finding solutions to challenges of our country is a responsibility of all of us.”
The
event was also attended by vocal former Makerere reaseacher, Dr Stella Nyanzi.
“Copies
of the “The Patient” can be found in Uganda Bookshop, Jumia online, Total
Nsambya Bonjour Shop, or call / WhatsApp +256701548013,” said Besigye’s aide,
Ronald Muhinda.
No one remembers when the government last barred written matter,
especially books, from entering the country. That is how rare these
things happen, even in less-than-ideal free speech environments such as
Uganda. And when they do, they create a buzz much more so in our wired
and connected world.
Online debate, especially on social networks such as Facebook, has
been raging since news broke in the Sunday Monitor newspaper of the
customs officials’ refusal to release 500 copies of a book critical of
President Museveni’s quarter-century hold on power. Predictably, the
debate is as much about how outraged Ugandans are as it is about their
keen interest in getting a copy of the book titled: The Correct Line?
Uganda Under Museveni.
The government has unwittingly scored two own goals: alienated some
more Ugandans, and also turned book and author into overnight hot
property by giving them international publicity that they would not have
enjoyed just yet had the book come in quietly. On “Ugandans at Heart”, a
popular listserv, several Ugandans abroad are providing excerpts of the
book while also telling those interested and able to buy it online at Amazon.
Customs authorities at Entebbe International Airport impounded the
book as it arrived by courier from its publisher in London on Wednesday,
October 6. Its author Olive Kobusingye, a medical doctor and sister of
Dr Kizza Besigye who has twice challenged President Museveni for power,
told the BBC that the book documents the bad experiences many Ugandans have been through since 1986.
Speaking before Parliament on Wednesday, October 13, Internal Affairs
Minister Kirunda Kivejinja said the book was seized because it
contained “security connotations.”
He said; “You see, we are very alert these days on matters of security.”
An editorial in the Daily Monitor
newspaper has called on the government to accept criticism “regardless
of whether Dr Kobusingye’s opinion is pleasing to those in power or
not”. Added the editorial: “The government has a responsibility to
protect and promote free thinking and expression through works of art,
like this book.”
President Museveni and Dr Besigye will again faceoff in the 2011 presidential elections.
The launch of the book which was scheduled for the evening of October
13 in Kampala was cancelled after a major hotel that was to host the
event backed off reportedly following pressure from the government. A
leading bookstore that had initially indicated willingness to stock
copies of the book chickened out as well.
Ugandan Administration to Explain Book Impoundment
Uganda?s Internal Affairs Minister, Kirunda
Kivejinja, is expected to report to parliament Tuesday why 500 copies of
a new book about President Yoweri Museveni that were impounded by
customs officials have not been released to the author.
The book entitled ?The Correct Line? Uganda under Museveni? is written by Olive Kobusingye, sister of Uganda?s main opposition leader Kizza Besigye.
Minister of Information Princess Kabakumba Masitko told VOA the
government did not impound copies of the book. She said the government
was concerned about the fact that copies of the book were sent to two
different addresses.
?What happened is that our customs department
is mandated to search everything that comes into our country even if it
involves other government agencies. The first technical thing that
happened was the consignment had two consignees. So, those who sent
those books have to sort out that,? she said.
Masitko said Internal Affairs Minister Kirunda Kivejinja only got involved in the investigation because of security reasons.
?No,
no! He only came in to look at the security concerns, but there is
nothing like impounding them (copies of the book)? she said.
She
said freedom of speech and press is alive and well in Uganda, and the
citizens have the right to read whatever material they want.
?We
have (a) Freedom of Access to Information Act in place and several
others. The media, the press I think are the most liberalized in the
whole world,? Masitko said.
Masitko said once the issue of the
book having been sent to two different addresses is resolved, the author
may have the copies back.
?Whoever sent those consignments is
supposed to sort out the issue of the consignees. That is all that?s
remaining. They address it to Makerere University and, at the same time,
address it to somebody else,? Masitko said.
Olive Kobusingye,
author of the book and sister of Uganda?s main opposition leader, Kizza
Besigye, said the government has said nothing to her about why it
impounded copies of her book.
?No arm of government has told me
anything about why they held the book. All of what I?ve heard was from
DHL, which is the courier that was supposed to bring the book,?
Kobusingye said.
She described as ?nonsense? the claim by Information Minister Masitko that the book had been sent two different addresses.
?I
mean that should have been the courier?s worry that they can?t deliver
the package because they can?t figure out the destination. But, I think
for the government to say that they are interested in the package
because it had two addresses, it?s first time I have heard that excuse,?
he said.
Kobusingye said her book is about how President Museveni
made promises to the Ugandan people and how he has failed to fulfill
those promises.
?Basically, all of those promises have been
hollowed, so they were very well articulated, and what have we seen over
the years? We have seen security agents tortured people, killed them,
some killed in broad daylight on city streets. We have seen the right of
citizens to choose their own leaders taken away in violence and stolen
election. We have seen a government that is not accountable to its
people. So, all of the things that President Museveni promised have run
hollowed,? she said.
She denied that the release of her book could
be political considering that her brother, Kizza Besigye, is a leading
Ugandan opposition figure.
?I think if anybody will not read the
book because they say it was written by the sister of an opposition
leader, that?s their choice. But, I think anybody that has an interest
in how they governed should read the book and take it on its own merit,?
Kobusingye said.
Dr Kobusingye at the launch of the Luganda version of her controversial
book, Lino Ly’ekkubo Ettuufu?, in Kampala on October 6, 2011. PHOTO BY
ISAAC KASAMANI
Dr
Olive Kobusingye, a younger sister to Forum for Democratic Change
president Kizza Besigye, has been sued for allegedly publishing
defamatory matter in her 213-page book, ‘The Correct Line? Uganda under
Museveni’. The book is critical of President Museveni’s government.
Dr
Kobusingye was sued by Lt-Col Ndahura Atwooki Biraku Rataku, a senior
army officer in a case before the High Court in Kampala on Friday. “The
plaintiff’s (Lt Col. Ndahura) claim against the defendant (Dr
Kobunsigye) is for libel in respect to the reckless, false and malicious
printing and causing to be published a defamatory article in her book:
The correct line? Uganda under Museveni.” read the suit in part
In
his complaint, the army officer claims Dr Kobusingye in her book on
page 15 paragraph 3 and on page 16 Chapter 1, falsely wrote that
unofficial reports indicated that three people had been killed and that
Lt-Col Ndahura and the Presidential Protection Unit soldiers who
perpetrated this violence, were never apprehended.
The
army officer, who was once a member of the Court Martial, also alleges
that Dr Kobusingye claimed that after that unfortunate incident, he was
promoted to the to the rank of Lt-Col in 2011 and was decorated with the
Luwero Triangle medal.
According to him, the allegations by Dr Kobusingye were false and defamatory in nature.
He
claims this has now caused him ridicule, odium and that his reputation
has been lowered in the eyes of the right thinking members of the
society.
