Family narrates how Dr Nyanzi was arrested

Kampala.

Among those who attended Makerere University research fellow Dr Stella Nyanzi’s Friday lecture that attracted a huge audience at Mackinnon Suites Hotel in Kampala, was Ms Lillian Drabo, her lawyer.

Ms Drabo says shortly after 8pm when Dr Nyanzi ended her 20-minute lecture; her team resolved that she sneaks out of the room through one of the hotel’s backdoors instead of using the main entrance.

“This was done for the sake of her security. Stella was escorted out of the room by a Rotary Club member. After ensuring she was safe in the car, he returned to inform us to join her,” Ms Drabo says.

The team used the same backdoor to exit so as not to raise any suspicion.

“When we reached the car which was parked at Fang Fang Hotel, which is next to Mackinnon Suites Hotel, she [Dr Stella] was nowhere to be seen,” Drabo adds.

Meanwhile, Ms Sheila Nyanzi, a sister of Dr Nyanzi, says it was difficult to tell who at the event was exactly behind the arrest.

“Everyone was wearing civilian clothes so it was difficult to know who was who. But I was told there were police cars parked outside the hotel,” she stated during a phone interview.

By Saturday afternoon, Ms Sheila said the family still had no idea where the researcher was being held.

“We demand immediate access to Dr Nyanzi,” she asserted.
A few hours before her arrest, Dr Nyanzi in an interview with Sunday Monitor revealed that unknown people had been trailing her movements at her residential home, a three-bedroom flat in Kyanja, a Kampala suburb.

“Those guys have come to the flats and are trying to rent an apartment there so that they can monitor, tap, kill, who knows?” Dr Nyanzi said.