Opinion: The Muhoozi I know can't laud torture of Ugandans

By Steven Fredrick Magomu

Since the arrest of novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija a few weeks ago, the mainstream and social media have been buzzing.

What crowns the buzzing, to me, are two opinions in the latest Sunday Monitor; one done by Gawaya Tegulle and the other by Musaazi Namiti.

Both writers’ background is like mine, having come from foot-soldiering journalism, as we fondly referred to the hunting for stories in the field.

In Gawaya Tegulle’s opinion, he goes for the throat of his newly found learned friends, the judiciary. Gawaya is short of denouncing his precious law profession because of the way the judicial leadership has allegedly been silent on how the Kakwenza issue was handled.

In an attempt to quote Martin Luther King Jr, Gawaya condemns the entire judicially for not speaking up, saying that in the end they will not remember the words of their enemies but the silence of their friends. I find this very regrettable from my senior colleague in journalism.

The judiciary Tegulle is heaping all blame on for Kakwenza’s woes, came out and pronounced itself on the matter, instructing the security agencies that had arrested Kakwenza to have him produced to court.

Tegulle and I know this very well that the judiciary he works with now, does not have any instrument of force to use, in case the arresting security agency defies its orders.

Unless he wanted the judges to strip themselves before the arresting agency that had apprehended Kakwenza. By the way, Tegulle who is an officer of the High Court of Uganda and an advocate of the same court, what did he do for Kakwenza’s release? Or he wants us to exonerate him just like that?

Tegulle and Musaazi, while trying to paint a picture that Uganda’s human rights record has deteriorated to levels never seen, forget very fast that those writing reports about Uganda have failed to write reports about their home countries.

I think the Guantanamo bay prison being mentioned here brings fresh memories to you, and I am not trying to justify the torture by “our so-called security officers” but the fact that at times you find either a security agency or some operatives that are rough and go to the extreme in conducting their work.

Musaazi rightly quotes the Uganda Human Rights Commission reports on human rights violation. I know for sure that body belongs to Uganda government which is led by the same president and commander in chief of the armed forces.

This simply tells us that the leadership of Uganda does not condone torture, just like our president has often been heard cautioning the security forces against use of torture in case they were doing that.

President Museveni’s policy has always been dialogue; he has only used force and violence to those who have chosen to pick up arms and fight the people of Uganda.

Otherwise, I remember UPC and DP had a lot of young men who were making louder noise than Kakwenza; they are all now silent. Where is FDC which used to make noise? Just go to parliament and you will have your answer.

That is how the NRM government works; you make noise, it talks to you and once you have made known your purpose and intent of the noise, the issue is handled, and the rest becomes history.

The noise being made by the NUP boys and girls will soon evaporate and you will find many of them in positions of power; their noise will become history.

That notwithstanding, some rough elements in our security forces whose purpose and intent we don’t know, should know that they can’t operate inside the NRM with intent to bring it down and succeed.

Torturing someone in the name of Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba is malice aforethought; why would you torture someone and have him released with all those marks on his body?

What was the intention of that torture?

This is barbaric and those who did it should be brought to book.

The Muhoozi I know is not one who can sign up for this heinous act; Muhoozi believes in dialogue just like his commander in chief.

I know of very many young people who have ended up working with him, yet at the start, they used to haul all sorts of insults against him on social media.

The author is an analyst and communications specialist.

fmagomu@gmail.com