The President of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has revealed that his bodyguard, Eddie Mutwe, was subjected to horrific torture while in detention.
Kyagulanyi made these revelations on Wednesday after visiting Masaka Main Prison, where he checked on Eddie Mutwe along with fellow detained party members Achileo Kivumbi, Mugumya Gaddafi and Wakabi Grace.
According to Kyagulanyi, Mutwe was electrocuted, waterboarded, and tortured in numerous other ways.
“He is in great pain. He was brutalised in the most barbaric manner. He was electrocuted. He was subjected to waterboarding while a cloth was stuffed in his mouth and tied around his neck,” he said.
Kyagulanyi further disclosed that Mutwe’s genitals were squeezed and beaten with a baton.
“They tied his arms with handcuffs and stepped on them, which cut into his skin. His legs were also cuffed. He was flogged four times a day throughout his time in incommunicado detention. The torture began early every morning,” he added.
Mutwe was reportedly fed only once a day a meal of posho and beans. When he requested drinking water, he was told to drink the dirty, blood-stained water he was sitting in.
Kyagulanyi also described psychological torment during Mutwe’s detention.
“There was a loudspeaker in the room that was turned on during torture sessions to drown out his screams,” he said.
Additionally, Mutwe was allegedly forced to wear a T-shirt bearing President Museveni’s image and made to kneel at gunpoint, swear allegiance to Museveni and his son, and was recorded while doing so.
“They stripped him naked, cut off his beard violently while mocking him, and took humiliating pictures,” Kyagulanyi said.
One of the most shocking claims was that Muhoozi Kainerugaba, President Museveni’s son, personally participated in the torture.
“Muhoozi came on the third day and challenged Eddie to fight him, even though he was in handcuffs,” said Kyagulanyi.
“Language barriers were also used as an excuse for further abuse. One operative reportedly asked Mutwe in Runyakore, “Amagara?” (How is life?), to which Mutwe, not understanding, replied in Luganda that he had not been given “Amagara”. He was then mocked and beaten for not knowing the language. “They laughed at his ignorance and beat him mercilessly. One of them even spat in his face,” Kyagulanyi recounted.
Mutwe suffered severe beatings to his feet, which became so swollen he described them as resembling “elephantiasis”. “He is only beginning to heal but still cannot walk without assistance,” Kyagulanyi noted.
The bodyguard was also injected with three unknown substances and forced to perform press-ups and frog jumps immediately after torture sessions.
Kyagulanyi said Mutwe was held in a basement beneath what appeared to be a residential house before being moved to another military facility. “During interrogations, he was blindfolded and asked, ‘Who are you to challenge Museveni?'”
He added that Mutwe eventually broke down emotionally during the prison visit. “His mother, wife, and eight-month-old baby were with us. At one point, he couldn’t speak anymore. He said every time he closes his eyes, he sees those monsters coming back for him.”
Kyagulanyi concluded with a strong condemnation: “Eddie Mutwe should not be in prison he should be in a hospital. His colleagues, too, committed no offence and should not be jailed.”
