Missing NUP supporters in custody of security agencies – Uganda Human Rights Commission

The Uganda Human Rights Commission is entangled in a web of uncertainty as it addresses the alleged disappearance of National Unity Platform members, a revelation made by Chairperson Mariam Wangadya.

This follows a report carried out by the Uganda Human Rights Commission on the alleged torture and detention of National Unity Platform members.

While reading the report to journalists in Kampala Wangadya said this followed a call by the NUP secretary General to carry out investigations.

“The missing numbers of persons as identified by the commission were majorly in 2021. This is among the reasons to why the Secretary General National Unity Platform Lewis Rubongoya asked the Uganda Human rights Commission to carry out investigations on how and why the alleged persons were arrested,” she said.

Wangadya further stated that Investigations hit roadblocks, with implicated individuals refusing to cooperate, casting doubt on the existence of these missing persons.

Addressing journalists in Kampala, the chair expressed the commission’s skepticism, emphasizing the absence of national identification numbers for the purported victims.

“Despite calls for urgency from the Human Rights Commission progress, we were hampered by the unwillingness of some to speak out. With this reluctance the commission has been prompted leave conclusions to the public,”

When asked whether some of the victims who were over detained by security operatives qualifies them to be missing persons, Wangandya highlighted that the estates of missing persons Act defines who a missing person is.

She hence noted that the Secretary General National Unity Platform Lewis Rubongoya wrote the letter when these people were already out on police bond or on court bail. Thus, this doesn’t qualify them to be missing.

In 2022, NUP made alarm about the abduction of its supporters and members before, during and after the 2021 presidential elections in which the party leader Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, emerged runner-up.

Allegations about the secret capture of citizens by security forces, which late Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga once likened to the disappearances recorded during Idi Amin’s government, stirred national outcry and public spat between the government and NUP.

Many of those missing individuals were later to be found in military custody and President Museveni, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, in a televised address said 50-plus of them were in custody of the Special Forces, then commanded by his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, now a UPDF general.

Some of the missing persons emerged from incommunicado with torture marks and life-long injuries and were dropped in various places, including roadside swamps from where volunteers led them home.

An intense media scrutiny, including serialization of the stories of the missing persons and plight of their families, as well as pressure from citizens and development partners, prompted the government to table in Parliament a list of 177 NUP supporters it said were in custody of security forces.