The
survivors’ harrowing accounts, their emaciated, scarred and
blood-stained photos sprinkled all over social media recently have
painted an eerie and complete picture of the notoriously harsh forms of
torture subjected to hundreds of Ugandans arrested in security sweeps
across the country.
Many have, and continue to be arrested
arbitrarily or abducted by men in plainclothes and whisked away to
undisclosed detention locations in tinted Toyota Hiace vans, notoriously
nicknamed drones.
Torture in detention has dominated
public conversation and divided Ugandans like few issues before.
Interviewed over time, each survivor has a harrowing tale. Here is what
we have learned about the different forms of torture in these
undisclosed extralegal detention centres.
SAMUEL MASEREKA
Samuel Masereka, the National Unity
Platform (NUP) coordinator for Kasese, was arrested in Kasese on
December 7, 2021. He was released on January 28, 2022. He told a press
conference at the NUP offices in Kamwokya last week that his captors
electrocuted and whipped him with electric cables and cut parts of his
body.
“When they arrested me, they kept me at
Kilembe hospital before I was transferred to the Chieftaincy of Military
Intelligence (CMI) offices in Mbuya. They caned every part. Even the
private parts were not spared. They punched me several times. I now feel
severe pain in my chest. They would boil water in a percolator and then
pour it on the particular parts they wanted to hit. They would do this
repeatedly.
At one time I asked them, why don’t you
take me to court if you think I have committed a crime because they had
held me for over 48 hours without trial. But they told me that the
48-hour rule didn’t apply to them because if they wanted, they could
even kill me right away without a trace,” Masereka said.
Interviewed on Monday about Masereka’s
torture by CMI operatives, Lt. Col Ronald Kakurungu, the acting
spokesperson of the UPDF, said the army does not condone torture.
“If Masereka has accused some people at
CMI of torturing him when he was under detention, let him file a case of
torture with police describing where he was tortured, by whom and when
all this torture happened. Thereafter, we shall conduct joint
investigations with the police. No soldier is above the law. The UPDF
shall hold soldiers individually accountable for participating in any
forms of torture….”
Juma Kasule
Interviewed about his ordeal, Juma
Kasule, a NUP supporter, said he was arrested in December 2020 for
supporting presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine.
“I was arrested with two other
colleagues from our boda stage on Salaama road (Makindye) and whisked
away by a waiting drone. In the drone, we were gun-butted in the
abdomen; we also found other people wailing inside. We could not see
them because we were all blindfolded. They drove us around Kampala for
about eight hours. We were taken to a detention facility. At the
reception, each one of us received 50 whips. After, we were led into a
holding room. We were served small portions of food late in the night.
The blindfolds were then taken off…” Kasule said.
“After eating, the mean-looking army men
led us to a courtyard where they would instruct us to entertain them by
running on one leg. The men would say, you are going to entertain us to
repay for the meals we have given you. They would then tell us to run
on one leg towards a specific point. Anyone that didn’t reach that point
was whipped to near death,” he added.
“With my weight, I struggled to run on
one leg. I couldn’t complete a kilometer on one leg and at times I
stopped, stood on both legs to avoid falling but the guard didn’t spare
me! Instead, he whipped us 100 strokes whenever we fell or stood on both
legs….” he said.
“Whoever failed to complete the run
would return to the starting point. I resorted to fasting on some days
so that I could rest well on some nights. Whoever couldn’t complete
running a kilometer on one leg was sometimes tortured. They tied our
legs and arms together from the back, raised us into the air, poured
cold water on our bodies, and then whipped us. We were expected to run
the next day (sobs). I shall never allow any of my children to join
politics, not even becoming a class monitor,” he said.
Bobi Wine’s singing partner, Ali Bukeny
aka Nubian Li, has a harrowing tale too. He was arrested on the
presidential campaign trail in Kalangala in 2020 and held for six
months.
“While they were taking us to the cells
in Kalangala after our arrest, these guys would step over our heads.
When they wanted to move either to the front or to the back of the
truck, they would step on our heads. In the cells, military officers had
these electric cables and batons. These guys made our handcuffed
colleagues frog-jump while they caned and kicked them. Many of them got
injuries. From Kalangala we were moved to Masaka and then remanded to
Kitalya prison. In Kitalya, a ward supposed to accommodate 100 people
would accommodate more. Over 300 inmates would be bundled into one ward.
When they wanted to find space for you, the warden would stand between
two people to create space for you to sleep. Then, they would push you
between the two people…” he said.
“…At the time of my arrest, we had just
given birth to a little boy. I was his best person at home. He would
chase after me if I walked out of a room. But when they came to visit me
for the first time in prison, this kid could no longer remember me. I
tried to hold the baby, it instead cried running away from me.”
Eddie Mutwe
Nubian Li’s prison mate Ali Ssebuwufi
alias Eddie Mutwe (Bobi Wine’s head of security) also carries bad
memories of the different forms of dehumanizing torture in Makindye
Barracks.
“After our arrest, we were kept in a
police cell in Kalangala while handcuffed. They did not remove the
handcuffs, which is against the law. After a long time in the detention
facility, they called us one by one into a small room where they told us
to undress. I was told to take off my shirt, mask, stockings, and
trousers. I remained in my boxers. I was told to remove my boxers. I
asked why. I was then pepper-sprayed and a soldier cocked his gun and
asked me “are you refusing?” I took them off.
They told me to move aside as they all
watched me. They instructed me to bend over and spread my legs. They
were trying to humiliate us and take away our dignity as men. The guy
started squeezing my genitals. The pain was unbearable. I cried like a
baby. On another night, I was blindfolded and taken into a room by
someone I didn’t know. Inside, my captors told me to save (hold) my
testicles.
They tied me up while boxing me till I
became unconscious. When I got up, I felt weights tied up around my
genitals. One of the men told me to give them information about Bobi
Wine if I wanted them to forgive me, which I declined to do. By some
luck, a man who seemed superior ordered them to take the weights off. I
felt relieved!”
“There are still many people rotting away in those torture chambers because we left some people there and found others there.
“Before Masaka Chief Magistrate’s court,
we were charged with a crime committed on January 3, 2021, when we were
under detention. By the time I returned home, my wife had delivered a
baby boy. This is the only reason I am happy after my release.”
Nubian Li, Mutwe, and 49 others were
arrested on December 30, 2020, on Bobi Wine’s presidential campaign
trail in Kalangala. On January 7, Mutwe and compatriots were granted
bail by Masaka Chief Magistrate’s court before they were shortly
rearrested and detained at Makindye Military barracks for days. They
were arraigned in the army court where they were charged afresh and
remanded to Kitalya Mini-Maximum prison.
Despite government claims of calm,
torture and abductions continue. The December 28, 2021 dramatic arrest
of the author and harsh government critic Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has
dominated the public conversation for months.
At 4:20pm on December 28, 2021, minutes
before gun-toting men cut down his house door in Kisaasi, a Kampala
suburb, Kakwenza tweeted frantically, “Currently under house arrest.
Gunmen are breaking into my house by force.” In a recent interview with
NTV, Kakwenza bared his soul.
KAKWENZA RUKIRA
Kakwenza said, “They hit the
burglar-proof of the window, broke it, and entered my house. They
started punching me in the stomach, kicked me, and hit me with a gun
butt. I found two drones and three private vehicles outside. My captors
were around 20 in number. The ones in uniform were about 12 and others
were in civilian clothes. All were armed with pistols and guns. I was
then whisked away.”
“I could feel that we were on the
Northern bypass. We reached somewhere and I heard the taxi tout calling
Kalerwe, Bwaise. I was then led into a room. They beat me using batons.
They hit my ankles. I asked them, “Why are you beating me? Why have you
arrested me; you have not told me any reason.” They did not have any
arrest warrant…”
“…I
was then taken to a room where a speaker was playing loud music. I was
told to dance. Whenever I danced slowly, someone would hit me with a
baton and they would tell me to dance vigorously. I then told the afande
“Sir, I am tired; I need to rest.” He said, “you’re tired, okay; push
up position.” I made push-ups until I could not anymore.
He said, “You said you were tired,
do pushups.” I then said “okay let me dance.” I then danced. We danced
without rest. They told us “you can sleep for one hour.” At around Iam
in the night, they woke us up. We then danced till morning,” Kakwenza
said.
“In the morning, we were given food and
allowed to shower. A shower takes two minutes. You remove the mask when
you are in the toilet or shower because the toilet is kind of detached
from the room. After the shower, they started beating me, telling me to
pull down the book (the Banana Republic, about my torture at the
Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, (CMI) from Amazon.”
“They beat me everywhere with batons and
then took me back to the dance room. I danced with my feet all swollen
but I had nothing to do. If you stopped dancing, they would beat you;
so, you had to dance [smiles]. You collapse, they beat you until you
regain consciousness.
The entire time I was there, I was
dancing apart from the day I was taken to Iganga for a guided house
search. We came back and they sent for me the following day. They told
me to take off my clothes. They beat me up! They started asking for my
funders. They asked about people I did not know. They asked me about
people from the American embassy, the European Union, and people from
the British Council. They asked about all of them and I honestly told
them that I did not know anyone.”
“…They beat me up until I could touch
any part of my body and feel my blood. Blood was all over my blindfold. I
then knew that I was dying. That day, they beat me and I lost my
consciousness. I regained my consciousness at about 6am, the next day. I
found a doctor working on my wounds. They were giving me six injections
every six hours. They would get pliers and pluck flesh from my thighs
and everywhere around the body.
I have dermatological ulcerations all
over my body. I felt I was dying. That is the day I thought of
denouncing my Ugandan citizenship. They made me stand in front of a
camera and apologize to (First son Lt. Gen Muhoozi Kaineruagba and
President Museveni. I had nothing to do. I was dying,” he said.
“Someone came and whispered to me,
Kakwenza we thought you were going to die. You are a very strong man. We
honestly thought you would die…the reason they were doing all the
medicine and stuff, you were to be produced in court.
The pressure outside is too much.’
“By Saturday, the wounds were drying.
Court then granted me bail. As I was walking to the gate, which was
400metres away, I saw a double cabin. I asked my escort where he was
taking me because I was not seeing my lawyer. I did not see my relatives
anywhere. He was like you walk; you will find your lawyers. I agreed. I
had seen the double cabin parked at the gate…”
“When I came near it, the number plates
were covered. I was like this is a drone. I was limping; I had the
release order and my medicine in my hands. When I saw it [drone], I went
back to my escort. He had walked back. I followed him. He was like
Kakwenza you are safe. You just walk. That is when six gentlemen emerged
out of a maize plantation. They came running, reached where I was, and
lifted me.”
“They took me to Makindye military
police barracks. I found they had prepared a beautiful self-contained
old room. They brought a towel, soap, a box of water, coffee, a
toothbrush, toothpaste; they asked me what food I eat. I told them I was
a vegetarian. They said we shall be serving you anything you want to
eat. “Here we are good people, we don’t torture.”
That is what they told me. A doctor came
in and examined my body. Afterward, he stepped out. I overheard him
speaking to someone on phone. He was like; this man is not alright we
should not keep him here. I heard him repeat the same statement five
times. I was taken back to my home in Iganga in a small car. We also had
a lead car and another car behind us. They all had no number plates.”
Kakwenza was also arrested on April 13
2020 after he wrote his book; the Greedy Barbarian. He described a
despicable toilet experience at the hands of his captors at the CMI
detention facility at Mbuya.
“…he [captor] took me to a small toilet
and locked the door behind him. For a minute or two, I thought that
perhaps he had brought me to ease myself and that he would return and
take me to sleep with the inmates I had found sobbing in the corridor.”
“As my eyes darted about, I saw a steel
plate and a plastic cup that had been placed on the floor. There were
also iron bars fixed into the two walls that appeared to be handles to
help a handicapped person use the toilet. I proceeded to use the
toilet…However, when the officer came back to serve me drinking water
and found me relieving myself comfortably, he kicked me viciously,
propelling me off the toilet seat.”
“I landed on the floor like a bag of
potatoes. The officer had chained both my hands and legs; so, gathering
myself up again was something of a herculean task,” he said.
“You idiot, this is not a toilet!” the
man fumed, and the whole room was pervaded by a cigarette-polluted
breath from his malodorous mouth.”
“But this is a toilet, sir,” I retorted.
“Kumanyoko. Eat that shit now!” he commanded. I looked at him askance.
The beanie that had blindfolded me had fallen amidst the altercation.
All along he had been standing at the threshold. Now he walked into the
small cell, grabbed me by the ears, and thrust my head into the toilet
bowl. My mouth almost kissed the mound of unflushed constipated shit
that had been floating on the water inside the bowl,” he said.
“It was a terrible night for me. I was
very cold in the small toilet, and the pain from the tight handcuffs and
tight chains around my legs was excruciating. I wondered what the
following day would bring if an illiterate hired rascal who hardly spoke
English, whose fingers and teeth were blackened by tobacco smoke, could
treat me the way bulls being trucked from Kiruhura to Kampala for
slaughter are treated,” Kakwenza said.
The president has come out several times to condemn torture but his subordinates seem less inclined to heed his advice.
After the January 2021 elections, the
many disappearances of supporters of opposition parties and images of
torture strewn all over the media prompted Museveni to address the
nation again in August 2021.
“Beating captives is wrong. Why? You
undermine your case in court; when the court discovers that you got
information through torture. Secondly, on account of beating, somebody
may admit what is not true. Torture, assassination, etc are used by lazy
people that are not ready to do more work using gaps in the stories of
the criminals if they are telling lies,” Since then allegations of
state-sanctioned torture have persisted.
