The Deputy Chancellor of North Kigezi Diocese in Rukungiri District, Counsel Isaac Atukunda, has called on the State to account for the whereabouts of Sam Mugumya, whose family reportedly remains unaware of his whereabouts despite the emergence of videos allegedly showing him with broken limbs at an unknown location.
The call follows the circulation of videos reportedly released by Lt Herbert Matanda Mabonga, a UPDF deserter, purportedly showing Mugumya wearing a T-shirt bearing President Museveni’s image, with what appears to be broken legs and struggling to walk.
On Thursday, Col Chris Magezi, the Acting Director of Defence Public Information at the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs/UPDF, dismissed the claims attributed to Lt Mabonga as “a pile of unsubstantiated rubbish” comprising forgeries, doctored images and concoctions.
However, Counsel Atukunda, who is also a former secretary of the Uganda Law Society, said on Friday that simply dismissing the videos as false and fabricated does not amount to accountability from the security agencies over Mugumya’s disappearance.
On September 25, 2025, Atukunda said he sent representatives to deliver groceries to Mugumya’s home, where the family remained hopeful that their son would return after the Parliamentary and Presidential elections held in January 2026.
“More than eight months after the elections, Sam Mugumya’s whereabouts still remain unknown, but the only videos of him with broken limbs in an unknown location are what is known of him,” Atukunda said.
He said the prolonged uncertainty had left Mugumya’s family disappointed and anxious about his whereabouts.
“This isn’t the Uganda the NRA government promised Ugandans when it took power in 1986. This isn’t the fundamental change that was promised,” Atukunda said.
He said the State has a constitutional obligation to account for Mugumya, citing Article 20(2) of the Constitution, which provides that the rights and freedoms of individuals and groups enshrined in the Constitution shall be respected, upheld and promoted by all organs and agencies of government and by all persons.
Atukunda questioned whether the government had investigated Mugumya’s disappearance and called on the authorities to state their position on his whereabouts.
“Merely declaring the videos false and fabricated isn’t accountability,” Atukunda said.
The Uganda Law Society (ULS) has also said it will engage the United Nations to seek accountability over Mugumya’s continued disappearance.
ULS Vice President Anthony Asiimwe said in a September 30 statement that the society was closely following developments concerning Mugumya, including the circulation of video footage that had heightened public concern about his welfare.
“In light of these developments, the Uganda Law Society has resolved to engage the relevant United Nations special procedures on enforced and involuntary disappearances as a complementary avenue for accountability and protection,” he said.
He added: “This step is taken to reinforce, rather than replace, the work of counsel of record and to ensure that the case receives independent international scrutiny consistent with Uganda’s treaty obligations.”
Mugumya, a former FDC mobiliser, was reportedly abducted on August 26, 2025, while having breakfast at NIM Hotel in Nyamitanga, Mbarara City, and it is now more than a year since the search for him began.
Witnesses said armed men believed to be security operatives bundled him into a drone vehicle and drove away.
His family has since pursued habeas corpus applications, but authorities have neither produced him in court nor publicly acknowledged holding him.
His disappearance came less than three years after his return from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he spent more than eight years in detention after his 2014 arrest on allegations of plotting rebellion. He was never formally tried and was released in October 2022.
Mugumya’s mother, Edinansi Katungwesi, petitioned the ULS president in August, seeking the society’s intervention.
In an August 3 letter to ULS president Isaac Ssemakadde, through his Vice President, Anthony Asiimwe, Katungwesi asked the law body to help find her son.
“My son Sam Mugumya was abducted on August 26, 2025 in Mbarara… from that day I have never seen him until recently when I saw a video and photo of him struggling to get up, and I got hope that he is still alive,” the letter reads in part.
It adds: “When he disappeared, I reported the case to the Police but I have never gotten assistance to date. I don’t know where he is, I have never heard from him, that is why I am pleading with the Uganda Law Society to help me find him.”
Katungwesi handed over the letter to Asiimwe, who had led a delegation of ULS officials to visit her at her Rukungiri home on August 3.
Asiimwe later told our reporter that the society had started by calling upon relevant authorities who may be holding Mugumya to present him in court if he has a case to answer, or release him.
He questioned why the authorities had failed to account for him.
“Not even Parliament has been able to hold the Government fully to account for the restoration of Mugumya’s constitutional rights, despite the gallant efforts of the Leader of the Opposition, who has unwaveringly raised the matter in his demand for the release of all political prisoners,” he said.
The Opposition in Parliament has also demanded that the government account for Mugumya’s whereabouts after a video purportedly showing him in a distressed condition circulated on social media.
Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Joel Ssenyonyi raised the matter during plenary on October 1, saying Parliament had repeatedly sought explanations from the government over people reported missing, abducted or held without being produced in court.
Ssenyonyi said he had previously submitted names of people reported missing to the Ministry of Internal Affairs after its Permanent Secretary asked him to provide details for follow-up.
He said the latest images and videos circulating online had renewed questions about Mugumya’s whereabouts.
“A person like Mugumya… We are seeing images, videos of him disabled, still incarcerated,” Ssenyonyi said, adding: “If these people have committed an offence, why not produce them in court? Mr Speaker, no one is above the law in this country.”
Ssenyonyi also referred to claims attributed to Lt Mabonga, who, in a viral video, identified himself as a former security intelligence officer in the UPDF and spoke publicly about alleged torture and detention facilities.
He also raised the case of Christopher Godi, alias King Zale, whom he said was taken on April 10 and had not been accounted for.
“Government, if this man is not being held in a torture chamber, why don’t you produce him in court?” he asked.
Government Chief Whip Jane Ruth Aceng said the government had received the names of people the Opposition had reported as missing.
She said Ssenyonyi had submitted the names following a request by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the government to follow up on the cases.
“On Tuesday, Honourable Paul Mwiru added another name, Eria Jengo. And I have added that name to the list. If they find that they have the people, they will say so,” Dr Aceng said.
She asked Parliament to give the government two weeks to return with information on the people named by the Opposition.
Speaker of Parliament Jacob Markson Oboth directed the government to take the matter seriously and report back to Parliament within two weeks.
“Uganda has made a lot of progress in the right direction. We should not afford ourselves anything. If we do the right thing, LoP would be the Government Chief Whip,” Oboth said.
He said the government had demonstrated commitment to resolving the matter and directed it to return with a report within two weeks.
Oboth also said Parliament would set aside time for a broader debate on human rights once the government was ready.
“This House agreed unanimously that we should find a day to debate nothing but human rights and I’m waiting for when the government will be ready to do that,” he said.
Ssenyonyi welcomed the two-week deadline but expressed concern that more people could be picked up before the government returned to Parliament.
“My worry, though, Speaker, is that before the two weeks elapse, some other people might be picked up. Yes. And not taken to court, but taken to a torture chamber,” he said.
He cited Baba TV journalist Eria Jjengo, whom he said was an accredited parliamentary journalist, as another case that Parliament needed to address.
Ssenyonyi said the issue should not be viewed solely through political affiliation, arguing that due process should apply to everyone.
“Regardless of your political persuasion, because we have seen some colleagues in the NRM also being picked up, the rule of law is good for all of us,” he said.
