National Unity Platform (NUP) party leader Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, addresses supporters in Mayuge District on September 4, 2023.
Edward Ssebuufu, aka Eddie Mutwe, was the last man standing in the inner sanctum of Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine’s security team. Not anymore.
In a raft of sensational posts to the microblogging site X (formerly Twitter), Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), made some grim revelations on Thursday.
Gen Kainerugba, who is also President Museveni’s son, revealed that Mr Ssebuufu, the man tasked with providing safeguards for the National Unity Platform (NUP) principal, Bobi Wine, was being held incommunicado in the basement of his house.
The victim of a forced disappearance, Mr Ssebuufu was jumped by uniformed men while in Kiwango Village, Mukono District, on April 27. He now joins Achilleo Kivumbi, Gadafi Mugumya, and Grace Wakabi, aka Smart, who are held by state actors and facing various charges in different courts, including the defunct military tribunal—the General Court Martial (GCM).
Whereas the trio of Mr Kivumbi, Mr Mugumya and Mr Wakabi, aka Smart, is battling charges of aggravated robbery and the three are still imprisoned in Masaka main prison in Masaka District, Mr Ssebuufu’s travails—if Gen Kainerugaba’s narrative is to be believed—are different. His situation continues to shock the conscience of the nation. It also repeats a pattern that has been going on, virtually unchallenged, for a protracted period.
Isolated
Last May, Anthony Agaba alias Bobi Young—then a permanent fixture in Bobi Wine’s security detail—was arrested. He remains incarcerated after being charged by the GCM, the military tribunal that the Supreme Court red-flagged earlier this year. All of this has left Bobi Wine cutting an isolated, if dejected, figure. The NUP principal told Saturday Monitor in an interview that the State wants to portray him as “helpless” not only before the international community but also in the eyes of a nation that goes to the polls in under eight months. “It’s clear,” Bobi Wine said on Friday, “I am the target. They (the State) want to isolate me and make us helpless.
They want to communicate to the world and the country that we are no-bodies.” Bobi Wine further noted thus: “The CDF is now torturing Eddie in his basement and everyone is looking at him getting away with this because that is what he has always done. Many Ugandans are dying, being tortured and whisked away into unlawful custody and people are laughing, it is sad.”
On Thursday evening, using his X handle, Gen Kainerugaba provided photographic evidence to show that Mr Ssebuufu, the head of Bobi Wine’s security detail, was in his basement, “learning the Runyankore language.” “I will only release Eddie to Mzee, when he gives me the order. He would have learnt the history of NRA/UPDF by then. And will understand that NRM is a party that represents the whole country. It can never be defeated,” Gen Kainerugaba posted.
The sensational, if troubling, revelations came barely days after Kituuma Rusoke, the Police spokesperson, denied allegations that Mr Ssebuufu had been abducted. Mr Rusoke told the media on Monday that his superiors had not been brought up to speed about the arrest and abduction of one of Bobi Wine’s trusted lieutenants.
“I heard news circulating on social media about his abduction but no police officer or any security personnel has officially briefed me, I am not in a position to give details regarding his arrest and abduction,” Mr Kituuma said.
Monitor contacted Mr Kituuma on Friday morning following Gen Kainerugaba’s flurry of X posts. The police spokesperson told us in no uncertain terms that “the position I gave [during the Monday media briefing] has not changed.” This is not the first time Bobi Wine has been left exposed as campaigns or elections near.
In December 2020, the NUP principal had to make a lonely walk to the polling station after nearly everyone on his campaign trail team was arrested and released six months after the elections. At least 126 members of his campaign team, including all his security detail, were arrested in Kalangala District and transferred to Masaka District where they were held for months.
Upon their release, they all decried torture with many of them displaying scars of wounds that had been inflicted on them during their incarceration. Some of them told stories of being subjected to dehumanising acts like being held around their private parts while others claimed to have been sodomised by people they believed to be soldiers.
X tirade
During the latter part of Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday morning, various posts were made using Gen Kainerugaba’s X handle. The posts described, almost in granular detail, what had been done or what was about to be done to Eddie Mutwe.
“Eddie is looking very smart these days. The boys have tuned him well. He salutes Mzee's picture every day before breakfast…,” one of the posts read. Another post read thus: “Eddie started crying as soon as the boys grabbed him...his Runyankore is improving these days. The beards were the first thing the boys removed.” Efforts to speak to the spokespersons of the UPDF were futile as our repeated calls on the known numbers went unanswered.
Col Chris Magezi, the acting Defence public information officer, asked this reporter to send a message that attracted no response by press time. The abduction of NUP supporters has been ongoing for some time as leaders of the biggest Opposition party say over 300 of their members are being incarcerated in different detention centres.
In 2021 April, Gen Jeje Odongo, the then Interior minister, released a list of over 1,300 supporters of NUP whom he said State actors had in different government incarceration centres.
This included some who have never been seen or heard from since they were picked anywhere between five or seven years ago. To date, NUP leaders and families are still searching for 18 of people whose whereabouts remain unknown. These include John Bosco Kibalama, John Damulira, Shafik Wangolo, Martin Lukwago, Michael Semudu, Musisi Mbowa, Vincent Nalumoso and Dennis Zimula. Others are Muhammad Kanatta, Moses Mbabazi, Mustapha Muwemba, Isma Ssesaazi, and Godfrey Kisembo.
On several occasions, NUP leaders and lawyers have petitioned different bodies, including the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), which has always promised to follow up on the matter and investigate. Alex Bukhumune, the head of public relations at UHRC, said they had already taken up the matter and were following the events closely.
“We have already dispatched a team to follow up on this matter and as the day goes by, we shall be given a position as a commission. Being morning, many things are still unfolding but what I can tell you is that we are already on this matter of Eddie Mutwe,” Mr Bukhumune said.
