Officials of the Opposition People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) party have welcomed a move by Uganda Law Society (ULS) leaders to join the search for its mobiliser and political activist Sam Mugumya, who went missing about a year ago.
Mr Harold Kaija, the PFF deputy secretary general, told Monitor that ULS made the right decision because Mr Mugumya deserves to regain his freedom.
‘We are optimistic that this search will yield results and have our comrade regain his freedom because he has suffered for almost a year detained in a place no one knows,’ he said.
Mr Kaija was moved to comment barely a day after Mugumya’s mother, Ms Edinansi Katungwesi, petitioned the ULS president to intervene in the matter.
Ms Katungwesi, in an August 3 letter to ULS president Isaac Ssemakadde, through his deputy, Mr Anthony Asiimwe, requested the law body to help her find her missing son.
‘My son Sam Mugumya was abducted on August 26, 2025 in Mbarara…from that day I have never seen him until recently when I saw a video and photo of him struggling to get up, and I got hope that he is still alive,’ the letter read in part.
It added: ‘When he disappeared, I reported the case to the police, but I have never gotten assistance to date. I don’t know where he is, I have never heard from him. That is why I am pleading with the Uganda Law Society to help me find him.’
The desperate mother handed over this letter to Mr Asiimwe, who had led a delegation of ULS officials to visit her at her Rukungiri-based home on Monday, August 3.
Mr Asiimwe told Monitor yesterday that ULS has already kicked off the process of fighting for Mr Mugumya’s freedom.
‘We have started by calling upon the relevant authorities who may be holding him to present him to court if he has any case to answer, or release him; and if that fails, we shall write to relevant authorities and use all other means to ensure that he regains his freedom,’ he said.
Mr Asiimwe added: ‘We call upon whoever is responsible to respect dignity and the rule of law, and to release Sam Mugumya. If he committed offences, let him be produced in court because he has rights.
But he is being mistreated, which is very bad.’ Mr Mugumya, a former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) mobiliser, was reportedly abducted on August 26, 2025, while having breakfast at NIM Hotel in Nyamitanga, Mbarara City. Witnesses said armed men believed to be security operatives, bundled him into a van and drove away.
His family has since pursued habeas corpus applications, but authorities have neither produced him in court nor publicly acknowledged holding him. His disappearance came less than three years after his return from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he spent more than eight years in detention after his 2014 arrest on allegations of plotting rebellion against the government.
He was never formally tried and was released in October 2022.
Mr Ssemakadde recently wrote to Security Minister Gen Jim Muhwezi demanding the immediate release or presentation of Mr Mugumya in court in case he has a case to answer. This was after the Opposition National Unity Platform NUP) party president Robert Kyagulanyi on July 31 posted on his official X platform a video that appeared to show a person who looks like the missing Mugumya.
‘Here is a leaked video of comrade Sam Mugumya, who remains missing since his abduction in August last year. The video was apparently leaked from an unknown detention facility where he is held incommunicado,’ Mr Kyagulanyi said.
He added: ‘He appears crippled; unable to walk without a walking frame — evidence of the effects of the torture he has suffered since abduction.
Meanwhile, the regime continues to deny any knowledge of his whereabouts! But one day, those responsible for these crimes will be held accountable.’ Gen Jim Muhwezi, when contacted yesterday, declined to speak to Monitor about the matter during the phone interview.
‘I cannot discuss this sensitive security matter on the phone…,’ Gen Muhwezi said and hung up the call. President Museveni on Monday said he has never at any point ordered the torture of any of his opponents.
Mr Museveni, in a statement he wrote in response to journalist Andrew Mwenda’s claims that one of the informers of the President was a fraudster, said some elements in the country’s security organs have made it a habit to torture people, yet his government does not support that.
The President, in the Monday statement, described torture, maiming and extra-judicial killings as contrary to the ideals upon which the National Resistance Army (NRA) fought during the liberation struggle. ‘Coming back to torture, let alone maiming, these are immoral, counter-revolutionary, not strategic and not necessary for we the freedom fighters,’ Mr Museveni wrote.
He added: ‘In the last 56 years I have been fighting, I have never tortured, or ordered anybody to torture, an opponent.’
The President said the NRA and later the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) had always defeated opponents without resorting to torture, warning that security personnel should not commit abuses while enforcing the law.
‘Nevertheless, the UPDF and the other security forces, in fighting impunity, should not commit their own crimes, such as torture, extra-judicial killings, etc. As already said, those mistakes are not moral, ideologically correct or strategic.’
Legal experts and political players have now asked the President to walk the talk on torture and abductions.
‘I condemn the way security men abduct people and keep them with no whereabouts. I urge the government, through ULS, to help and produce Sam Mugumya,’ said Mr Mugyeni Gashom, the PFF Electoral Commissioner for Rukungiri District.
Mr Asiimwe said ULS is also demanding the release of other political prisoners being held without trial. Mugumya’s mother, Ms Edinansi Katungwesi, engaged with the ULS vice president, Mr Anthony Asiimwe, in Rukungiri District.