Woman accuses jailed police boss of kidnap

Kampala. A woman has implicated the jailed Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr Nixon Karuhanga Agasirwe, in kidnapping and torturing her.

Agasirwe is jointly charged with nine other officers on remand in Luzira prison for allegedly kidnaping a former bodyguard of Rwandan President Paul Kagame in 2013 and causing his forcible repatriation back home where the home government convicted him to life imprisonment.

Ms Zeridah Kakayi made the revelation at the launch of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) Quarterly Rule of Law Report 2017.
She said Mr Agasirwe arrested her on May 11, 2016, as she returned from prayers at Christ the King Church in Kampala and forced her into a waiting car that whisked her away.

She said the prayers had been organised by Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) in line with the party’s “defiance campaign” at the time against results of the February 2016 presidential election.
Ms Kakayi, the vice chairperson of Kampala FDC youth league, said she and two other men were tortured by Agasirwe’s group while being driven away.

Abandoned
She said they were dumped on a street in Gulu District after five days to portray her as a mentally deranged person.
“I was beaten like a snake, injected with drugs I did not know. I was only rescued by people who found me on the street and helped me to reach my family to locate me. I sustained both physical and psychological injuries and I was diagnosed with backbone dislocation,” she told the military court.

Ms Kakayi underwent treatment in Kampala and Nairobi, Kenya, for seven months due to blurred vision and difficulty in walking due to the alleged torture.
Ms Kakayi has since sued government for the alleged torture and violation of her rights.

Upon listening to her testimony, High Court Judge Yasin Nyanzi said government would prosecute people who defy the rule of law.
He said the rule of law is not a self-effecting doctrine where it’s enforcement is a function of the will of people but has institutions charged with enforcing it, especially the Judiciary.

The ULS president, Mr Francis Gimara, said the practice of torture is in stark contrast to the doctrine of rule of law.
“The practice of torture corrupts police and investigative agencies and their techniques. With its brutality, it denies important values of human dignity embodied in the rule of law and has a general negative impact on the society,” Mr Gimara said.
accusing government authorities of ignoring ULS recommendations in the rule of law to check such abuses.

“…there is tremendous distrust that the Uganda Police or army officers could properly investigate and carry out impartial inquiry into torture perpetrated by their own colleagues. Given that some high ranking officers are complicit in wrongdoings of their subordinates, when they have been called to investigate torture and ill-treatment, they have attempted to discourage the complainants and in some cases they have intimidated and threatened them. These officers cannot be trusted to carry out proper investigations,” Mr Gimara observed.

He revealed that ULS has set up the Anti-Torture cluster to help in dealing with torture issues in the country.
Mr Gimara said the ULS committee resolved to institute legal proceedings against individuals who have committed torture in their personal capacities which is permissible under the Anti-Torture Act 2012.

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