The National Unity Platform (NUP) party leaders say they have traced 460 members to different detention centres across the country. NUP says their welfare teams and lawyers compiled the details, with 200 arrested in the western region, eastern (100), northern (50), and 160 from Central Uganda.
The party says the majority were arrested during campaign rallies of NUP party presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, since the campaigns kicked off at the end of September.
‘Our supporters have been arrested and detained, yet there are no crimes they have committed. Our teams have been documenting these from day to day,’ Mr Kyagulanyi told this publication during an interview.
‘We have consistently encouraged our supporters to remain peaceful despite the provocation that the security personnel may throw at them. Unfortunately, the police have been the ones causing the violence and arresting our people,’ he added.
The major arrests started with a crackdown on NUP supporters in Mbarara District as they headed to Bwizibwera for their final rally of the day, with more than 70 of those seized crammed into a police truck and driven off to Mbarara Central Police Station, and Kiruhura District for detention.
During their campaigns in the Lango sub-region, 30 more supporters were picked up from their hotel rooms and detained at the area police station before they were charged in court and remanded. After a tragic shooting in Iganga District, with one person reported dead, the party said more than 30 people were arrested by the police and detained in different centres and were later charged and remanded.
Mr Kituuma Rusoke, the police spokesperson, yesterday confirmed that they have a number of detainees from NUP and others from across the country.
‘I can confirm that we have many people from various political parties, especially from the NUP, but I am compiling the lists from the Criminal Investigation Department to ascertain the number,’ Mr Kituuma said.
‘Many of these are being charged with malicious damage to property, theft, obstruction of police, unlawful drill, and including Ms Olivia Lutaaya, who was arrested on an old offence,’ he added.
Following the arrests in Mbarara, the police released a statement claiming the arrested NUP members had been attacking the men in uniform throughout their campaign and those who were blocking them from doing their duty.
The police also named some of the incidents that prompted the crackdown on the NUP camp, including one that happened in Busia District, where they said suspects travelling in a NUP convoy assaulted an officer in Mayuge District on October 3. They also said in Kyankwanzi, another officer was assaulted during a rally at Bikoma Primary School, and in Kakumiro on October 21, a police vehicle’s windshield was damaged. The police also cited other incidents on the Lira City-Alebtong route where they said police officers moving behind the NUP presidential candidate convoy were attacked and their vehicle tyres were punctured, and property stolen.
They also said a group of NUP candidate bodyguards assaulted Edibu Emmanuel in Abim, and a journalist in Kiruhura District. Ms Shamim Malende, the Kampala Woman MP, and a member of the NUP party legal team, said most of the party members arrested have been charged with traffic-related offences.
‘What we have found out is that many of them are being charged with offences like driving without permits, riding boda boda without crash helmets, using passenger service vehicles without a licence,’ Ms Malende said.
Figures from NUP documents seen by this publication show that 2,134 supporters of the party were abducted between 2019 and 2021, with 18 of them remaining untraced to date.
These include John Bosco Kibalama, John Damulira, Shafik Wangolo, Martin Lukwago, Michael Semudu, Musisi Mbowa, Vincent Nalumoso, and Dennis Zimula. The party leaders also say 272 activists have been arrested since 2021 when they took to protest, with the party now forced to take care of school needs and other requirements for some 300 children of their colleagues. In April 2021, after the presidential elections, the Internal Affairs Minister, Gen Jeje Odongo, released a list of more than 1,300 supporters of NUP whom he said had been detained in different government facilities, including some who had never been seen since they were picked up five or seven years ago.
Early this year, Mr Edward Ssebuufu aka Eddie Mutwe, a personal bodyguard of Bobi Wine, was abducted in Mukono District and held incommunicado for some two weeks. Two weeks later, the Chief of Defence Force, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, posted on his X handle, a half-naked picture of Eddie Mutwe confirming that Bobi Wine’s bodyguard who had been missing for four days was in his basement, ‘learning the Runyankore language.’ Some other Bobi Wine’s allies who are battling charges of aggravated robbery include Achilleo Kivumbi, Gaddafi Mugumya, and Mr Grace Wakabi, aka Smart.
Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, the party secretary general, said: ‘Some of the people have since been released on bail. Wherever there is a campaign in an area, we go there a day later, and we shall be sure to find many of our members arrested and detained. We don’t know how many people were arrested following the rallies in Nakawa West and Nakawa East [this week]. We keep updating the list, so this number could be bigger.’