Abdul Matovu, one of the NUP party supporters, who claims to have been abducted and tortured for a
month gestures after an interview with Monitor in Kampala in December 2024. PHOTO/ MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZ
On the evening of May 12, 2021, my friend Rugumayo received a call from one of our colleagues, asking us to meet him at a mutual friend's home.
We were to discuss a function planned for the following day at the National Unity Platform (NUP) party headquarters.
As soon as we arrived, the door was flung open and a gun pressed against my ribs.
The whole house was surrounded by the military who zoomed into the compound in a Toyota Hiace van popularly called drone and ordered us to sit down.
I tried to resist and was brutally kicked.
The armed men searched the house but found only a local kitchen knife and posters of NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi, who is better known by his stage name of Bobi Wine.
They then plucked off all the posters of Kyagulanyi in the house and outside.
Soon, I was masked together with my colleagues and bundled into the dreaded drone that is known for spates of abduction across the country.
Once in the drone and blindfolded, they forced us under the seats as some sat on and others trampled on us and drove us to some strange destination.
At some unknown location, they pushed us into a house which I later realised was a safe house in Bukoto, a Kampala City suburb. They then separated us, taking each of us to a quiet, dark and isolated corner.
After about eight hours, I heard someone ask: “So you are the one who wants to overthrow the government?”
I did not respond, but as my blindfold was removed I felt dizzy since I had spent long hours in the dark.
On opening my eyes, I faced a man donning a Muslim attire who interrogated me. “When Kyagulanyi goes abroad, who does he talk to?
I told him I did not know.
I was then tortured and dipped into cold water. The experience was tortuous and after some time, they again asked me: ‘When Kyagulanyi goes abroad, who does he speak to?’”
Again I said ‘I don’t know’ and was given more beatings.
The man again asked, “When you say Roba doba style, what do you mean?” I told him I had nothing much to say and was badly beaten again.
The person in plain clothes then asked me questions while someone still in plain clothes kept on beating me.
For a month, we were tortured in three different safe houses at Kireka, Bukoto, and other places I did not know. I was asked several questions to which I had no answers.
They asked: “What is next for Kyagulanyi, where does he get funding, who led the 2019 demonstrations, what is your next plan? Does Kyagulanyi possess firearms?
But all I said was I didn't know anything and was tortured to near death.
Many of us became lame because of the torture. We had a case of someone whose head was virtually rotten. I too suffered chest pain, and to date sometimes I bleed, and I am really scared as I don't even have money for treatment.
After more torture, they told us we would be released but warned against going back to Kyagulanyi.
They told us this current government did not come by the ballot and so they don’t expect to hand over the leadership of the country to Kyagulanyi.
One of them asked me: “In case we give you power, do you think you will manage us with our guns? Do you think your ideologies of telling people to demonstrate can work? This government fought for you, we slept in the wild with animals, you even have wives, but we used goats and would kill that same goat for our meat, do you think you will manage?”
During the torture sessions, they would tie our arms, and legs and beating us; sometimes they would cover our eyes just as those who would beat had their faces covered.
Sometimes they would blindfold us and place us somewhere as someone would pounce on any one suddenly and beat up one.
During our unlawful detention, they removed my phone and used it to extort money in exchange for false promises of my release. Once the money was sent, they asked for more until she sent a total of nine million. My mother sold everything.
After economically draining my mother, they started scaring me. “The next time we see you engaging in such scuffles you will not even reach here,” they warned.
Some others warned that for those who would be lucky, their kidney or an eye would be plucked off.
I then asked them what crime I had committed, but they did not respond.
They finally said they would release us but that we should apologise to President Museveni and say that Kyagulanyi had misled us. I then went back to meet my tortured mates.
I meditated on the way I was arrested and how they stole all my money and remembered how I was arrested as I headed for Juma prayers during fasting. I got so annoyed that I told them I would not apologise.
One of our colleagues, Machete, told them to take us to court if they judge that we have committed any crime. But the officer retorted that even the courts were staffed by their own.
The following morning, they prepared us for court, took our DNA, handcuffed us and took us to Makindye military court under very tight security and charged with cases of possession of firearms.
We denied the case.
The judge then remanded us to Kitalya Prison for two weeks. The place was strange and scary and we prayed for the two weeks to end quickly so that we are taken back to the court.
We hoped that the judge would find no reason for our arrest and release us.
After the two weeks, we weren’t called to court and we cried as we suffered more but became stronger with time.
After six months, we were taken back to court, the judge again read the charges of possession of firearms, and we denied the case. But at the time, NUP had brought some lawyers, and we requested them to ask for bail but the judge rejected our bail application on the grounds that we were dangerous and without an address.
We cried and our people cried too.
After six months, we again asked for bail but the court again rejected it saying our sureties, among them NUP party secretary general Lewis Rubongoya, Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi, the MPs, and many responsible people, didn’t have permanent locations.
Many government officials approached us and pleaded with us to accept the crimes, so as to be released in May 2021. We applied for another bail application but still failed and the State added another case of treachery.
We did all that was required by the Constitution but still failed. I remember my mother sold everything to save me. I have lost everything and our wives have been taken, and some come to see us carrying the pregnancy by other men.
We decided to save ourselves and resume better lives outside of prison.
More government officials, including an army officer, approached us to relent saying it was the only way to get a judgment in court and leave prison.
Once we agreed to accept the crimes as they proposed, it took only three months for us to get out of prison. I will not mention any names of the government officials who were involved, but they were many.
Life after prison is hard as many things have changed and I am still battling with the disease and pray for a full recovery.
Compiled by David Walugembe, Maria Jacinta Kannyange, Sylvia Namagembe
