The President of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has once again decried the unlawful detention of several party supporters, who he says are being held without charge in the dungeons of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and the Internal Security Organization (ISO) at Mbuya.
During a press conference held on Wednesday in response to the latest wave of abductions targeting NUP supporters, Kyagulanyi criticized claims made by the ruling government that opposition members are staging their own disappearances.
He dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and “baseless,” pointing out that those reported missing are often later discovered in the custody of state security agencies or produced before courts under dubious charges.
Kyagulanyi emphasized the inaccessibility of CMI detention facilities, noting that even members of the parliamentary Human Rights Committee had been violently blocked from inspecting these sites.
He recalled how, during his time in the 10th Parliament, he and other lawmakers were chased away at gunpoint from a regime-operated safe house in Kyengera.
He described what he called the “Protest Vote” as a collective rejection of Uganda’s current political system.
“It is a rejection of the deprivation of citizens’ rights, a protest against repression and oppression. The #ProtestVote signifies a total overhaul of the repressive system, a protest against theft, impunity, corruption, and the many evils upheld by the regime. Through the protest vote, Ugandan citizens will peacefully rise to make their voices heard,” Kyagulanyi stated.
The NUP leader also recounted the circumstances surrounding the abduction of his chief civilian bodyguard, Edward Ssebufu, widely known as Eddie Mutwe.
He identified a plainclothes security operative named Muhumuza, who allegedly trails Kyagulanyi regularly, as part of the team responsible for Mutwe’s disappearance.
“They hate us and yet expect us to love them. They despise us and expect respect. They kill our people and want us to mourn with them when they suffer loss. They abduct, torture, rape, and humiliate us and still expect us to treat them with civility. Bloody hypocrites,” Kyagulanyi lamented.
He confirmed that Mutwe’s whereabouts remain unknown, and the police have publicly denied holding him. A habeas corpus petition has been filed by the NUP legal team to compel the state to produce Mutwe dead or alive.
Kyagulanyi also named other missing NUP supporters, including Mpalanyi Michael (abducted from Matugga on March 18), Ssentongo Shakur (abducted from Jinja on the same day), and Douglas Nsambu, whose whereabouts also remain unknown.
