UHRC visits Kakwenza in prison, tweet that he's fine... then mysteriously delete tweet

Officials at the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) have revealed that they paid a visit to detained writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, and noted that he is recovering well.

The award winning writer is currently detained at Kitalya prison, on charges of offensive communication.

Kakwenza’s woes stem from his social media posts in which he belittled President Museveni and First Son, also Commander of Land Forces in the UPDF, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

With several human right activists and civil society members calling for his release, and others demanding that he is allowed to get private treatment, UHRC said in a tweet that they had visited Kakweza, and he is doing okay, in a way to show that “there is no need for alarm.”

UHRC said in a tweet that, “Yesterday UHRC visited Kakwenza Rukirabashaija at Kitalya Government Prison. The team from UHRC interacted with him extensively and noted the visible scars and injuries on his body which were healing. We look forward for a judicial resolution of his matter.”

The human rights body has come under criticism over its deafening silence on the detention of Kakwenza.

In fact, it put down yesterday's tweet, hours after some people pointed out that it needed to do more "beyond checking on Kakwenza."

UHRC is a government body that is mandated to monitor and advance human rights in Uganda. Earlier on, the body had noted that they had been barred from investigating Kakwenza’s case.

The PEN Prize international writer of courage was forcefully arrested from his home last month and remains incarcerated.

Kakwenza was remanded to Kitalya until January 21, 2022.