Is Activits Sam Mugumya Dead ? » The Hoima Post –

Today marks 165 days since Comrade Sam Mugumya was forcibly taken from the streets of Mbarara. The date was August 26, 2025. His crime? Political activism. His current location? Unknown. His legal status? Unclarified. His story has become a chilling microcosm of a systemic pattern of state-sponsored abductions and judicial indifference that continues to plague Uganda.
Eyewitness accounts from that day describe a scene now tragically familiar: armed men in civilian attire, driving unmarked vehicles, seizing an individual without warrant or explanation. Since that moment, Mugumya has vanished into the opaque machinery of state security. His family, friends, and legal representatives have been left in agonizing limbo, navigating a Kafkaesque system designed to obscure rather than reveal.
“We have filed multiple applications, simply pleading for the state to produce him in court, dead or alive,” a member of Mugumya’s legal team stated, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal. “Each time, these applications are dismissed on procedural grounds or outright ignored. The judiciary, which should be the guardian of liberty, has become a passive spectator to enforced disappearances.”
This dismissal echoes a notorious precedent cited by critics: the case of National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters and leaders who were abducted in 2020 and 2021. For months, the state denied knowledge of their whereabouts or dismissed cases seeking their production. Only later, after sustained domestic and international pressure, did many victims resurface—not released, but presented in court bearing visible signs of torture and duress. This established a dangerous playbook: first deny, dismiss, and delay, then eventually produce the victim through a military court or charge them with fabricated offenses, all while claiming they were never “missing.”
“The strategy is clear,” notes a veteran human rights defender in Kampala. “It is to inflict maximum psychological torture on the victim through incommunicado detention, to terrorize their community and supporters, and to exhaust the legal and emotional resources of their families. By the time they are produced, the narrative is controlled by the state, and the victim is often broken.”
Mugumya’s prolonged disappearance underscores a reality of profound impunity in Uganda. Perpetrators of abductions operate with blatant disregard for the constitution and the rule of law, shielded by a system that prioritizes political control over justice. The Police routinely claim ignorance, referring families to other security agencies, who in turn offer no answers. This creates a labyrinth of accountability where no single institution takes responsibility.
The impact is devastating and far-reaching. Every day Mugumya remains disappeared is a day where the fundamental rights to life, liberty, and a fair trial are further eroded for all citizens. It sends a message that dissent can be met not with debate or legal charge, but with disappearance.
As the 165th day passes without word, the calls for answers grow louder. Human rights organizations, both local and international, are urging immediate disclosure of his whereabouts and condition. They demand that if there are charges against him, he be brought before a competent, independent civilian court without delay.
But until then, Sam Mugumya remains a ghost in Uganda’s political landscape—a stark symbol of a regime that rules not by law, but by fear; and a painful reminder of the countless others whose cries for justice are drowned out by the silence of impunity.

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