Ugly forms of torture in "Independent" Uganda

KAMPALA, Uganda

The survivors’ harrowing accounts, their emaciated, scarred and blood-stained photos sprinkled all over social media recently have painted an eerie and complete picture of the notoriously harsh forms of torture subjected to hundreds of Ugandans arrested in security sweeps across the country.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija (L)

Many have, and continue to be arrested arbitrarily or abducted by men in plainclothes and whisked away to undisclosed detention locations in tinted Toyota Hiace vans, notoriously nicknamed drones.

Torture in detention has dominated public conversation and divided Ugandans like few issues before. Interviewed over time, each survivor has a harrowing tale. Here is what we have learned about the different forms of torture in these undisclosed extralegal detention centres.

Samuel Masereka:

Samuel Masereka, the National Unity Platform (NUP) coordinator for Kasese, was arrested in Kasese on December 7, 2021. He was released on January 28, 2022. He told a press conference at the NUP offices in Kamwokya last week that his captors electrocuted and whipped him with electric cables and cut parts of his body.

“When they arrested me, they kept me at Kilembe hospital before I was transferred to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) offices in Mbuya. They caned every part. Even the private parts were not spared. They punched me several times. I now feel severe pain in my chest. They would boil water in a percolator and then pour it on the particular parts they wanted to hit. They would do this repeatedly.

At one time I asked them, why don’t you take me to court if you think I have committed a crime because they had held me for over 48 hours without trial. But they told me that the 48-hour rule didn’t apply to them because if they wanted, they could even kill me right away without a trace,” Masereka said.

Interviewed on Monday about Masereka’s torture by CMI operatives, Lt. Col Ronald Kakurungu, the acting spokesperson of the UPDF, said the army does not condone torture.

“If Masereka has accused some people at CMI of torturing him when he was under detention, let him file a case of torture with police describing where he was tortured, by whom and when all this torture happened. Thereafter, we shall conduct joint investigations with the police. No soldier is above the law. The UPDF shall hold soldiers individually accountable for participating in any forms of torture….”

Juma Kasule

Interviewed about his ordeal, Juma Kasule, a NUP supporter, said he was arrested in December 2020 for supporting presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine.

“I was arrested with two other colleagues from our boda stage on Salaama road (Makindye) and whisked away by a waiting drone. In the drone, we were gun-butted in the abdomen; we also found other people wailing inside. We could not see them because we were all blindfolded. They drove us around Kampala for about eight hours. We were taken to a detention facility. At the reception, each one of us received 50 whips. After, we were led into a holding room. We were served small portions of food late in the night. The blindfolds were then taken off…” Kasule said.

“After eating, the mean-looking army men led us to a courtyard where they would instruct us to entertain them by running on one leg. The men would say, you are going to entertain us to repay for the meals we have given you. They would then tell us to run on one leg towards a specific point. Anyone that didn’t reach that point was whipped to near death,” he added.

“With my weight, I struggled to run on one leg. I couldn’t complete a kilometer on one leg and at times I stopped, stood on both legs to avoid falling but the guard didn’t spare me! Instead, he whipped us 100 strokes whenever we fell or stood on both legs….” he said.

“Whoever failed to complete the run would return to the starting point. I resorted to fasting on some days so that I could rest well on some nights. Whoever couldn’t complete running a kilometer on one leg was sometimes tortured. They tied our legs and arms together from the back, raised us into the air, poured cold water on our bodies, and then whipped us. We were expected to run the next day (sobs). I shall never allow any of my children to join politics, not even becoming a class monitor,” he said.

Bobi Wine’s singing partner, Ali Bukeny aka Nubian Li, has a harrowing tale too. He was arrested on the presidential campaign trail in Kalangala in 2020 and held for six months.

“While they were taking us to the cells in Kalangala after our arrest, these guys would step over our heads. When they wanted to move either to the front or to the back of the truck, they would step on our heads. In the cells, military officers had these electric cables and batons. These guys made our handcuffed colleagues frog-jump while they caned and kicked them. Many of them got injuries. From Kalangala we were moved to Masaka and then remanded to Kitalya prison. In Kitalya, a ward supposed to accommodate 100 people would accommodate more. Over 300 inmates would be bundled into one ward. When they wanted to find space for you, the warden would stand between two people to create space for you to sleep. Then, they would push you between the two people…” he said.

“…At the time of my arrest, we had just given birth to a little boy. I was his best person at home. He would chase after me if I walked out of a room. But when they came to visit me for the first time in prison, this kid could no longer remember me. I tried to hold the baby, it instead cried running away from me.”

Eddie Mutwe

Nubian Li’s prison mate Ali Ssebuwufi alias Eddie Mutwe (Bobi Wine’s head of security) also carries bad memories of the different forms of dehumanizing torture in Makindye Barracks.

“After our arrest, we were kept in a police cell in Kalangala while handcuffed. They did not remove the handcuffs, which is against the law. After a long time in the detention facility, they called us one by one into a small room where they told us to undress. I was told to take off my shirt, mask, stockings, and trousers. I remained in my boxers. I was told to remove my boxers. I asked why. I was then pepper-sprayed and a soldier cocked his gun and asked me “are you refusing?” I took them off.

They told me to move aside as they all watched me. They instructed me to bend over and spread my legs. They were trying to humiliate us and take away our dignity as men. The guy started squeezing my genitals. The pain was unbearable. I cried like a baby. On another night, I was blindfolded and taken into a room by someone I didn’t know. Inside, my captors told me to save (hold) my testicles.

They tied me up while boxing me till I became unconscious. When I got up, I felt weights tied up around my genitals. One of the men told me to give them information about Bobi Wine if I wanted them to forgive me, which I declined to do. By some luck, a man who seemed superior ordered them to take the weights off. I felt relieved!”

“There are still many people rotting away in those torture chambers because we left some people there and found others there.

“Before Masaka Chief Magistrate’s court, we were charged with a crime committed on January 3, 2021, when we were under detention. By the time I returned home, my wife had delivered a baby boy. This is the only reason I am happy after my release.”

Nubian Li, Mutwe, and 49 others were arrested on December 30, 2020, on Bobi Wine’s presidential campaign trail in Kalangala. On January 7, Mutwe and compatriots were granted bail by Masaka Chief Magistrate’s court before they were shortly rearrested and detained at Makindye Military barracks for days. They were arraigned in the army court where they were charged afresh and remanded to Kitalya Mini-Maximum prison.

Despite government claims of calm, torture and abductions continue. The December 28, 2021 dramatic arrest of the author and harsh government critic Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has dominated the public conversation for months.

At 4:20pm on December 28, 2021, minutes before gun-toting men cut down his house door in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb, Kakwenza tweeted frantically, “Currently under house arrest. Gunmen are breaking into my house by force.” In a recent interview with NTV, Kakwenza bared his soul.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija

Kakwenza said, “They hit the burglar-proof of the window, broke it, and entered my house. They started punching me in the stomach, kicked me, and hit me with a gun butt. I found two drones and three private vehicles outside. My captors were around 20 in number. The ones in uniform were about 12 and others were in civilian clothes. All were armed with pistols and guns. I was then whisked away.”

“I could feel that we were on the Northern bypass. We reached somewhere and I heard the taxi tout calling Kalerwe, Bwaise. I was then led into a room. They beat me using batons. They hit my ankles. I asked them, “Why are you beating me? Why have you arrested me; you have not told me any reason.” They did not have any arrest warrant…”

“…I was then taken to a room where a speaker was playing loud music. I was told to dance. Whenever I danced slowly, someone would hit me with a baton and they would tell me to dance vigorously. I then told the afande “Sir, I am tired; I need to rest.” He said, “you’re tired, okay; push up position.” I made push-ups until I could not anymore.

He said, “You said you were tired, do pushups.” I then said “okay let me dance.” I then danced. We danced without rest. They told us “you can sleep for one hour.” At around Iam in the night, they woke us up. We then danced till morning,” Kakwenza said.

“In the morning, we were given food and allowed to shower. A shower takes two minutes. You remove the mask when you are in the toilet or shower because the toilet is kind of detached from the room. After the shower, they started beating me, telling me to pull down the book (the Banana Republic, about my torture at the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, (CMI) from Amazon.”

“They beat me everywhere with batons and then took me back to the dance room. I danced with my feet all swollen but I had nothing to do. If you stopped dancing, they would beat you; so, you had to dance [smiles]. You collapse, they beat you until you regain consciousness.

The entire time I was there, I was dancing apart from the day I was taken to Iganga for a guided house search. We came back and they sent for me the following day. They told me to take off my clothes. They beat me up! They started asking for my funders. They asked about people I did not know. They asked me about people from the American embassy, the European Union, and people from the British Council. They asked about all of them and I honestly told them that I did not know anyone.”

“…They beat me up until I could touch any part of my body and feel my blood. Blood was all over my blindfold. I then knew that I was dying. That day, they beat me and I lost my consciousness. I regained my consciousness at about 6am, the next day. I found a doctor working on my wounds. They were giving me six injections every six hours. They would get pliers and pluck flesh from my thighs and everywhere around the body.

I have dermatological ulcerations all over my body. I felt I was dying. That is the day I thought of denouncing my Ugandan citizenship. They made me stand in front of a camera and apologize to (First son Lt. Gen Muhoozi Kaineruagba and President Museveni. I had nothing to do. I was dying,” he said.

“Someone came and whispered to me, Kakwenza we thought you were going to die. You are a very strong man. We honestly thought you would die…the reason they were doing all the medicine and stuff, you were to be produced in court.

The pressure outside is too much.’

“By Saturday, the wounds were drying. Court then granted me bail. As I was walking to the gate, which was 400metres away, I saw a double cabin. I asked my escort where he was taking me because I was not seeing my lawyer. I did not see my relatives anywhere. He was like you walk; you will find your lawyers. I agreed. I had seen the double cabin parked at the gate…”

“When I came near it, the number plates were covered. I was like this is a drone. I was limping; I had the release order and my medicine in my hands. When I saw it [drone], I went back to my escort. He had walked back. I followed him. He was like Kakwenza you are safe. You just walk. That is when six gentlemen emerged out of a maize plantation. They came running, reached where I was, and lifted me.”

“They took me to Makindye military police barracks. I found they had prepared a beautiful self-contained old room. They brought a towel, soap, a box of water, coffee, a toothbrush, toothpaste; they asked me what food I eat. I told them I was a vegetarian. They said we shall be serving you anything you want to eat. “Here we are good people, we don’t torture.”

That is what they told me. A doctor came in and examined my body. Afterward, he stepped out. I overheard him speaking to someone on phone. He was like; this man is not alright we should not keep him here. I heard him repeat the same statement five times. I was taken back to my home in Iganga in a small car. We also had a lead car and another car behind us. They all had no number plates.”

Kakwenza was also arrested on April 13 2020 after he wrote his book; the Greedy Barbarian. He described a despicable toilet experience at the hands of his captors at the CMI detention facility at Mbuya.

“…he [captor] took me to a small toilet and locked the door behind him. For a minute or two, I thought that perhaps he had brought me to ease myself and that he would return and take me to sleep with the inmates I had found sobbing in the corridor.”

“As my eyes darted about, I saw a steel plate and a plastic cup that had been placed on the floor. There were also iron bars fixed into the two walls that appeared to be handles to help a handicapped person use the toilet. I proceeded to use the toilet…However, when the officer came back to serve me drinking water and found me relieving myself comfortably, he kicked me viciously, propelling me off the toilet seat.”

“I landed on the floor like a bag of potatoes. The officer had chained both my hands and legs; so, gathering myself up again was something of a herculean task,” he said.

“You idiot, this is not a toilet!” the man fumed, and the whole room was pervaded by a cigarette-polluted breath from his malodorous mouth.”

“But this is a toilet, sir,” I retorted. “Kumanyoko. Eat that shit now!” he commanded. I looked at him askance. The beanie that had blindfolded me had fallen amidst the altercation. All along he had been standing at the threshold. Now he walked into the small cell, grabbed me by the ears, and thrust my head into the toilet bowl. My mouth almost kissed the mound of unflushed constipated shit that had been floating on the water inside the bowl,” he said.

“It was a terrible night for me. I was very cold in the small toilet, and the pain from the tight handcuffs and tight chains around my legs was excruciating. I wondered what the following day would bring if an illiterate hired rascal who hardly spoke English, whose fingers and teeth were blackened by tobacco smoke, could treat me the way bulls being trucked from Kiruhura to Kampala for slaughter are treated,” Kakwenza said.

The president has come out several times to condemn torture but his subordinates seem less inclined to heed his advice.

After the January 2021 elections, the many disappearances of supporters of opposition parties and images of torture strewn all over the media prompted Museveni to address the nation again in August 2021.

“Beating captives is wrong. Why? You undermine your case in court; when the court discovers that you got information through torture. Secondly, on account of beating, somebody may admit what is not true. Torture, assassination, etc are used by lazy people that are not ready to do more work using gaps in the stories of the criminals if they are telling lies,” Since then allegations of state-sanctioned torture have persisted.