Besigye’s aide Sam Mugumya reportedly freed, but FDC won’t celebrate yet
The photo of a grinning Mugumya has excited sections of Ugandans who remember his vibrant political activism before his arrest by authorities in DR Congo eight years ago.
A picture of former Rtd Col Kizza Besigye’s aide, Sam Mugumya, holding a small placard with the words ‘free at last’ has emerged.
The photo of a grinning Mugumya has excited sections of Ugandans who remember his vibrant political activism before his arrest by authorities in DR Congo eight years ago.
Mugumya has been incarcerated in Ndolo Military Prison in DR Congo. Efforts by Besigye and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the political party he served, to free Mugumya, were futile.
The government of Uganda was reluctant to help the youthful Ugandan, who from photos of him that would emerge once in a while, was physically suffering.
However, the emergency of this Mugumya has not excited FDC officials. In an interview with NBS Television, the FDC National Chairperson Wasswa Birigwa, they will believe it when Mugumya physically returns to Uganda.
“We will believe and celebrate the news when we see him. You know how things in Uganda are; he can be freed in DR Congo and then get arrested by the Uganda government,” Wasswa said in Luganda.
Mugumya dedicated his youth to political activism under the FDC and as a personal aide to Besigye. He was arrested in 2014 and has since been in prison, in DR Congo.
His release has, however, excited Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine, the leader of the National Unity Platform. Bobi Wine said the release of Mugumya is heartwarming news.
“Delighted to learn that after 8 years under military detention in the DRC, our brother and comrade Sam Mugumya is free. Testament to the enormous sacrifices many people have had to make in pursuit of freedom and democracy for Uganda! We shall overcome!” he posted on social media.
