Sheikh Kamoga home raid: Uganda law society slams police over brutality 

Uganda Law Society (ULS) has appealed to the police and its sister security agencies to stop the use of unnecessary force, violence and intimidation while arresting unarmed and yielding suspects. 

The Thursday evening statement by ULS officials expresses their dissatisfaction with the manner in which young men were subjected to brutal assault while being arrested at the residence of a Muslim cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga last week. 

READ: Police top human rights violation in Uganda - UHRC report

The statement comes days after a CCTV video footage of the arrest went viral on social media, showing the victims/suspects being brutalised during arrest by the security agencies and the police. 
Police spokesperson, Mr Fred Enanga last Monday told journalists that about 40 people who had been “illegally confined” at Sheikh Kamoga’s home and undergoing “Sharia law training” were rescued.

“…the Constitution of Uganda, 1995 prohibits absolutely in all cases any form of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. This prohibition is not only non-degradable, its violation is an offense punishable under the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act, 2012 and offending officers are individually culpable and may be prosecuted accordingly,” the law society said in the statement.

The lawyers further remind the police and other security officers that they have a right to say no to orders from their superiors that may cause them to subject Ugandans to unnecessary torture and other demeaning acts, “for they are liable to prosecution.” 
“Police and other security officers are further reminded and cautioned that by law, orders from superior officers are not a valid defence to a charge of torture and neither is any perceived public emergency or security threat.”

The society further called for immediate investigation into the matter. 
Security operatives from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and Crime Intelligence late last week raided Sheikh Kamoga’s home in Tula zone, Kawempe Division, Kampala and conducted some arrests, raising concern among the public, especially the Muslim community.

The security raid reportedly followed complaints from relatives of the confined victims after the filed missing people reports at police.
Mr Enanga said their investigations led the security team to Sheikh Kamoga’s home where several people were found confined unlawfully.

“The investigations started after one Sarah Nabbosa received a phone call from his son, a senior two student at St Lawrence London College, requesting her to plead with his father to withdraw from the alleged Sharia school and take him back to the [ordinary] school. The mother, a 35-year-old businesswoman in Kitunda zone, Ssabagabo Makindye, traced the home of Hajj Kamoga in Tula zone, Kawempe 1, where she found her son. The administrators declined her request to take her son to her former school and she was chased away. Her son had been taken away by his father Twaha Mukiibi, who picked him on May 29, 2023, for school but instead took him for the secretive sharia law teachings,” Mr Enanga said.
Police claimed that when the security team went to Sheikh Kamoga's home, they found several other people.

"So, the motive of this training centre that is restricted to male youth and adults inside an enclosed facility which was locked with over six padlocks across all the gates and this was a place which was restricted from neighbours is questionable," he said.
He said the confined people were being fed on one meal a day.

"We are now working with Ministry of Education to establish if this facility is licensed to operate as a school. We are planning to record a statements from Sheikh Kamoga, his administrators and all the parents of the victims to help identify the motive of this secret training," Mr Enanga said before stressing, "We are not targeting Muslim community members in any way. We got complaints from parents that are concerned over the lives of their children and the fact that they were diverted from the main school curriculum."

However, Sheikh Kamoga told journalists that the security raid happened while he was away and condemned the manner in which the operation was conducted.
“I have often said, and now, I repeat that we are law-abiding citizens. We have no power and we cannot defy when security wants us. We have been brutalized, but we have remained law-abiding citizens and we shall not change,” Sheikh Kamoga said.

According to him, the people who were found at his home were undergoing rehabilitation, a job he says he has done for over 20 years.