Tension as FDC officials are arrested by military

Military Intelligence officials have arrested Forum for Democratic Change Bushenyi District Chairman, William Mukaira, on charges yet to be disclosed.

Mr Mukaire becomes the second FDC official from western Uganda to be arrested by Uganda military officials under unclear circumstances after Dr Aggery Byamaka, another FDC officer in Mbarara Municipality, was arrested on Thursday.

Septuagenarian Mukaira was picked from his home in Bwatoogo cell in Bushenyi Municipality on Friday in the morning by military officers, and immediately whisked off to an undisclosed location.

Uganda Peoples Defence Force Spokesman Felix Kulayigye confirmed the arrest to Sunday Monitor yesterday but said the charges against the two officials will be made public when they are produced in court next week.
“I can confirm that we have arrested them. I think they will be produced in court soon, probably on Monday,” Lt. Col. Kulayigye said, adding, “The charges will be made public when we bring them to court.”

Although Lt. Col. Kulayigye did not reveal the military facility where the officials are currently being detained, military sources intimated to Sunday Monitor that Mr Mukaira and Byamaka could have been brought to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence in Kampala.

Dr Byamaka’s wife, Doreen Byamaka, said yesterday that her husband was picked at about 1.30pm from his work place and that she followed him to the headquarters of UPDF Second Division in Mbarara where he was detained.
“We were at our place of work and a man dressed in UPDF uniform came and said we want you, let us go,” she said, adding, “When we asked where he was being taken and for what reasons, they asked me to follow them and go see the place.”

She adds that when they got to the quarter guard, they asked her to return. Dr Byamaka is the proprietor of Byamaka Pharmaceuticals and Hotel Serene on Buremba Road in Kakoba Division in Mbarara Municiparity.

When contacted by Sunday Monitor, the Second Division Spokesperson, Capt. Robert Kamara, said he does not want to discuss Mukaira’s arrested. “I don’t want to go into those matters so much,” he said.

Mr Mukaira, the former Bushenyi district chairman, is the proprietor of Valley College, Bushenyi, and also owns a hotel in the district.

Sunday Monitor has learnt that his arrest could be linked to his persistent campaign that government must explain the death of UPDF renegade commander Col. Edson Muzoora whose body was dumped at his family home on May 27.

Sources told this newspaper that the police had also targeted his wife but failed to find her at her home in Bushenyi.

The Regional Police spokesperson, Ms Polly Namaye, confirmed Mukaira’s arrest but refused to give details. “We picked him because there are some investigations we want to do,” she said.