Dr. Stella Nyanzi, a prominent Ugandan academic and human rights activist living in exile, has condemned the Uganda Police Force for allegedly intimidating her close friends and family.
According to Nyanzi, individuals identifying themselves as police officers have visited homes associated with her in Kitukutwe, Bulindo, Masaka, Najjeera, and Entebbe.
“At all these homes, they introduced themselves as members of the Uganda Police Force. In each case, they said they were looking for Wasswa and Kato, my twin sons’ Kiganda names. Shame on dictator Museveni’s police for trying to intimidate my close friends. We see through your bullshit,” she said.
Nyanzi also recounted a harrowing experience at the German Embassy in Nairobi, where she sought clarification on her refugee status and her right to return to Germany, her country of refuge.
“I went to the German Embassy in Nairobi this morning. They confirmed what I have been saying: I am a Ugandan refugee in Germany with valid travel documents. So why did Constantine, the German ILO, deny me re-entry into Germany?” she questioned. “If he is not racist or collaborating with Museveni’s regime, why did he claim my asylum application is still undecided? If he understands the dangers faced by Ugandan dissidents in Nairobi, why did he force me to remain here for Saturday, Sunday, and now Monday night?”
She said officials at the embassy acknowledged her legal right to stay in Germany but claimed she lacked permission to re-enter the country.
“I asked them how I could stay in a place I cannot re-enter. They stared at me blankly. I screamed. Male private security guards came running. I ordered them to back off and demanded a female officer instead. When a woman officer finally came, I screamed louder, furious that my safety was being so carelessly mishandled.”
Her lawyer, present during the ordeal, calmly asked for solutions, emphasizing he could not guarantee her safety in Nairobi. He referenced the abduction of opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye in Nairobi and the earlier detention of 36 FDC members in Kisumu.
The German embassy referred Nyanzi to the Foreigners’ Office in Munich and advised her to apply for a visa to return to Germany. They waived the visa fee but stated the decision would be made in Munich.
“Why do refugees need a visa to return to their country of refuge?” she asked. “Am I really a refugee? If I am, am I not a human being? Do I have to beg for re-entry every time I travel? Do I have any rights? Any dignity? Or am I just another dispensable irritation in the bureaucratic machinery that processes ‘foreigners’?”
She later contacted the Foreigners’ Office in Munich, which confirmed that she is indeed a recognized refugee with all valid travel documents. They were unsure why she had been denied boarding her flight with Etihad Airways but did not issue her the re-entry visa either, leaving her stranded another night in Nairobi.
“I remain a poor, black, Ugandan refugee woman at the mercy of a cold, uncaring system while my three children wonder why their mother is still exposed to Museveni’s threats in East Africa,” she wrote. “This woman, assumed to have the means to survive indefinitely in Nairobi, is simply trying to get home to Germany to take a warm bath and change a bra soaked with the sweat of anxiety.”
Frustrated and disillusioned, Nyanzi concluded with bitter irony:
“Perhaps instead of begging the Germans, I should beg dictator Museveni to die so Uganda can begin transitioning to a new regime. Perhaps I should just go to the Ugandan Embassy in Nairobi and surrender myself to the very dictatorship that made my life hell. At this point, Museveni’s senseless brutality seems easier to navigate than the illogical red tape of German bureaucracy.”
The Source Reports.
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