By Alexander Luyima | The Hoima Post
Human Rights Activist
A disturbing new leak has reopened one of Uganda’s darkest questions: what happens to political detainees after they disappear behind the walls of security facilities that the public cannot see?
Videos released by former UPDF Lieutenant Herbert Matanda Mabonga allegedly show opposition activist Sam Mugumya and National Unity Platform Deputy President Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi inside what Mabonga describes as a military safe house. One of the clips appears to show Mugumya in a severely weakened condition, while another shows Kivumbi undergoing a medical examination. Mabonga has alleged torture, unlawful detention and enforced disappearances.
The footage has been reported as allegedly originating from a facility in the Entebbe area. However, its exact location, date and circumstances have not yet been independently verified, and the UPDF had not publicly responded to the allegations when the footage was reported.
But the allegations are emerging against a troubling historical background.
A 2022 Human Rights Watch investigation documented enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention and torture by Ugandan security forces, including the police, army, military intelligence and Internal Security Organisation. Former detainees described being held in unauthorized locations commonly referred to as “safe houses.”
Human Rights Watch also reported that Uganda’s Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights had previously investigated allegations involving more than 400 people allegedly detained in safe houses and concluded that detainees had been abused and tortured.
That history makes the new footage particularly serious.
If the videos are authentic and the allegations surrounding them are substantiated, Uganda would face urgent questions about who authorised these detentions, where detainees were held, what legal authority was relied upon, and who was responsible for their treatment.
The spotlight will inevitably extend to the military chain of command, including Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces. But accountability must ultimately be established through evidence, investigation and due process rather than political assumption.
The same principle applies to every institution and individual implicated by the allegations.
This is why an independent investigation matters.
The authorities should establish the identity and condition of everyone shown in the footage, determine where and when the recordings were made, establish who operated the alleged facility, and investigate every credible allegation of torture or unlawful detention.
Uganda cannot afford a system where a person can disappear from public view and the country is left asking months or years later where that person was taken, who held them and what happened behind closed doors.
If Sam Mugumya was unlawfully detained or tortured, those responsible must be held accountable under the law.
If the footage has been misrepresented, the authorities should provide credible evidence establishing the truth.
Either way, silence is not an adequate answer.
The Ugandan public deserves answers. Families of missing and detained citizens deserve answers. And above all, the rule of law demands answers.
The question is no longer simply where Sam Mugumya was held. The question is who knew, who authorised it, and who will be held accountable
