Chapa Karuhanga’s relatives fail to reach him

Relatives of Chapa Karuhanga, a founding member of opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, were yesterday unable to reach him on telephone after he was intercepted by Tanzanian immigration officers at Dar es Salaam airport on Tuesday. 

Mr Nicholas Kamukama, the brother of Mr Karuhanga, told Monitor that calls to Mr Karuhanga went unanswered from midday to evening. 

“Right now, we can’t access him on the phone,” Mr Kamukama said yesterday. 

Mr Karuhanga was intercepted by Tanzanian Immigration officers as he was about to fly out to Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday. 

Mr Kamukama said Mr Karuhanga had earlier told him that the Tanzanian immigration officers told him that the Uganda government sent a request for him to be returned home. 

“They haven’t told him of any offences he has committed or he is wanted for,” Mr Kamukama said yesterday. 
Mr Kamukama said Mr Karuhanga said the Tanzanian authorities were taking him to a place he didn’t know to spend the night.

Attempts to find out whether Uganda Police Force sent a request through Interpol to arrest Mr Karuhanga on any criminal offence, were futile. 

The Uganda Police Force spokesperson, Mr Fred Enanga, did not respond to our messages about the issue. 
Tanzania and Uganda extradite suspects only through the Interpol system, which is laborious. 

For a person to be extradited in the Interpol procedure, he or she must have a criminal case, which is not political in nature, and the court must have issued criminal summons for Interpol to issue a notice of arrest and extradite a person. 

Mr Kamukama said Mr Karuhanga told him Tanzanian authorities informed him that they didn’t have any case against him. 

Mr Karuhanga, a founding member of the FDC, is the managing director of Serefaco Consultants Limited. 
Serefaco Consultants Ltd, which also does feasibility studies in energy, especially petroleum extraction, and environment management, established its presence in Tanzania in January. 

“He tried to do business here, but it became difficult because of the situation in the country. He decided to go to Tanzania,” he said. 

His consultancy firm has been active in the oil extraction studies. 
Mr Kamukama could not rule out that the holding of his brother could be related to the oil pipeline debate that is going on in the European Union Parliament, Tanzania and Uganda.

Last week, the European Parliament asked Uganda and Tanzania to halt the building of the pipeline to allow further studies on the dangers it could pose to the environment and humans. 

Uganda and Tanzania are opposed to the European Union Parliament decision and both countries insisted that they would continue with the project.   

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of Regional Affairs, Mr John Mulimba, yesterday said the ministry isn’t aware of Mr Karuhanga’s case, and they have written to Ministry of Internal Affairs to furnish them with details. 

“We have written to the Internal Affairs Ministry, but they haven’t yet responded,” Mr Mulimba said.