WHY UGANDA PARLIAMENT SHOULD VISIT MUSEVENI'S VICTIMS OF ABDUCTION

 

By CHANGE OF GUARDS

Since the conclusion of Museveni's January sham electoral process, Museveni's security goons have been on rampage abducting youthful opposition supporters.  Many youth, especially from Buganda,  region have disappeared without trace.  Upon intervention by parliament, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odong denied knowledge of such abductions and disappearances.  However, in a twist of events, Museveni publicly declared that his different security outfits, notably the military, were the ones holding these "terrorists."  He went ahead to dupe Ugandans by ordering that the list of all those under detention be made public.  

Two weeks later, the kidnaps and disappearances are continuing and the list has not been made public.  Parliment tasked the Minister of Defence to explain why the army has not complied with Museveni's directive.  In response, the Minister of Defence claimed that the army had availed the said list to the police for release to the public.  Parliament has not summoned the Minister of Internal Affairs to explain why the police has not made the list public.  Usually, whenever the army (CMI, JATT, SFC and ISO) carry out such abductions, the victims are physically tortured into pulp.  Whenever courts issue Writs of Herbeas Corpus, the army either ignores or rushes them to military courts in order to avoid public scrutiny.  In some instances, they are either dumped at police stations or just kept in police cells only for custody but managed by the army.   

Therefore, behind the seek and hide games, with regard to the list, is the fact that the victims have been physically tortured thus buying time for them to heal.  At worst, it is also most likely that some of them may have lost their lives thus can't be accounted for.  Therefore, by dancing to Museveni's tune, Parliment is abidcating its oversight role.  It is for the same reason that Museveni does not talk about producing them in court but  simply dupes Ugandans by pretending to order the release of the list of victims.  Luckly enough, Museveni has acknowledged not only that his security outfits are the ones carrying out the abductions and disappearances but they have killed others.  

A serious Parliment ought to have no business with the said list of victims but instead its Committee of Human Rights should have already visited the victims wherever they are detained. Could it be that since armed soldiers blocked the said committee members from accessing the torture chambers dubbed Safe Houses in September 2019, it now fears to poke its nose in the matter.  It should interest itself only in the list of those who Museveni has acknowledged to have been killed by his security goons.  The debate ought to focus on why the victims are not produced in court as stipulated in the Constitution.  Also, Parliment ought to scrutinize the increasing use of military courts in the prosecution of civilian opposition activists.

Finally, given what is going on, Parliament should put the Executive to task to clarify if Buganda region is under a defacto state of emergency.  

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM