The violent abduction of prominent Opposition lawyer and former Kampala Capital City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago marks a dangerous, highly volatile low point in Uganda’s political history. Operating in broad day light, armed military operatives scaled the walls of Lukwago’s Wakaliga residence, dragging him away in a notorious ‘drone’ vehicle.
Hours later, the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, took to social media to openly gloat. He shared images of a blindfolded Lukwago and boasted about holding him “in the basement” to inflict “hurt and pain.”
True leadership is born of moral authority, respect for due process, and a legitimate mandate from the people. Reliance on lawless detentions, Internet taunts, and the physical torture of civilians exposes a profound emptiness. As the country watches this terrifying escalation, the deafening silence from leaders across our societal spectrum, religious, cultural, and political, is deeply concerning. To those who choose to look the other way out of comfort or fear, let this serve as an urgent warning, your silence will not protect you.
Authoritarian systems are insatiable, they eventually consume the very people who enabled them through compliance. The atrocities, lawless abductions, and systematic civilian disappearances that you remain muted about today will inevitably knock on your doors tomorrow. When the wheel of political fortune turns, your titles, accumulated wealth, and proximity to power will not shield your own family members from the cold walls of a basement torture chamber.
The future of Uganda cannot be left as a casualty of fear. We have arrived at a defining point where being a quiet bystander is no longer a neutral stance, it is an act of complicity. When the Judiciary is treated with open contempt and civilian structures are overridden by arbitrary military decrees, the republic itself is under siege.
The crisis facing Uganda today is not merely a political dispute; it is a fundamental test of our collective humanity and national conscience. When a State weaponises its military machinery to drag citizens into dark basements, it does not just crush the individual, it crushes the moral fabric of the entire republic too. Time and again, records show that tyranny relies entirely on the exhaustion of the good and the isolation of the brave.
By choosing to stay silent or indifferent, we inadvertently hand over the keys of our collective future. Let us carry ourselves with the absolute conviction that no matter how deep or dark the cells may be, there isn’t enough space in the so-called basement for all Ugandans and above all, do not be a bystander.