Uganda Law Society (ULS): Radical New Bar – Open letter to Sam Mugumya – “Christmas in the Fridge” (25.12.2025)

Where is Sam Mugumya? [Been missing for 24 days]

Where is he? Where are you keeping him?

It has been 24 days since he was abducted and kidnapped in Mbarara at the NIM Hotel, as he was scheduled to take the bus to Kampala. So, the authorities and the state is playing the long game. Taking everyone for fools.

Where is Sam Mugumya?

Where is he?

What location and what state is he in?

We need to know and these sorts of games aren’t fun. It just shows the sinister side of the state and how it operates. As the state are willing to do this to a citizen and activist, a man who intended to start his campaign to run for office. A person who has fought for years and been a prisoner of conscience. That is happening again. If someone has the will and strength to be incarcerated. His one of them, but that doesn’t justify it. No, this has to be resolved.

Free Sam Mugumya and where is he?

We need to know. We need to hear from him and see him again. He is captured and detained. We need to know why and on what charges. Peace.

Where is Sam Mugumya?

It has been 17 days since Sam Mugumya was abducted and taken away by the authorities in Mbarara. Since then, there haven’t been a voice or a visible vision of the individual in question. The activist and opposition leader, Sam Mugumya who is vying office in 2026 as Member of Parliament in the General Election in 2026.

Mugumya knows the torment and knows the pains of challenging the system. He has been here before, but it is still dire for him. We don’t know who has him and where they are keeping him. He was supposed to be produced in Court after the Habeas Corpus application was denied yesterday and adjourned to 19^th September 2026. Sam Mugumya was supposed to be produced in Courts during this week, but instead his kept in a dungeon for another week.

They want to keep him for month without any trial, due process or possible justification to keep him detained. That’s what the state does and how they operate. The ones believing in the National Resistance Movement (NRM) or President Museveni. This is how they act and weaponizing the judicial system against its detractors.

Sam Mugumya could be anyone of us. Sam is another civilian captured, and they are taking his liberties away. We have no idea of the possible torture, harm or punitive action they are doing against him. It isn’t anything new of the state to torture or damage an incarcerated person. Just to prove their power… and what they are capable of.

He can be in a safe-house or wherever, but Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) acts like it doesn’t know. They claim they have no idea where Sam Mugumya is. We can rest assure that the Uganda Police Force (UPF) or any other entity doesn’t know too, but someone does. As someone ordered to kidnap, abduct and keep him detained. Sam Mugumya didn’t lose his freedom without someone giving the order to take it away from him. That’s a given and we all should know that.

Sam Mugumya isn’t alone in this. There are plenty more prisoners of conscience in the Republic. He is just one of plenty, who is suffering, because they dare to challenge the ones in power. Peace.

Sam Mugumya arrested in Mbabara and later detained at CMI, Mbuya

Today Sam Mugumya was arrested and detained by the authorities. The reasons for this is unknown and the charges are in the wind too. There is no warrant or known criminal conspiracy for that matter.

The well known activist and former Dr. Kizza Besigye aide, Sam Mugumya was picked up by law enforcement while eating breakfast at the NIM Hotel in Nyamitanga Mbarara. There he was picked up by both military personnel and plained clothed individuals. For hours there was uncertainty of where he was going and where he would be detained.

Now after hours of no knowledge. It is reported that Sam Mugumya is now detained at Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) in Mbuya. We know that Mugumya is now an activist turned politician and started his campaign to become Member of Parliament (MP). However, those efforts are now thwarted and it’s obvious too.

Mugumya will now face one of the worst dungeons of the Republic. A man who has already suffered in prisons for years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Where the authorities let him lingered and never tried to get him released. Therefore, we know the ill intent of the government and their handlers in this matter.

This here is political prosecution and Mugumya is a prisoner of conscience. A political prisoner for his belief and his cause. He is now taken into custody and we should fear the worst, as this place is now for torture and misuse of force onto civilians. We should expect the most horrific treatment and the need of medical treatment after spending time in the cells of CMI, Mbuya. Anything else is out of the ordinary.

We should be worried and concerned, as his life is taken into custody again. A man who has already suffered for a just cause and yet again they are doing this to him. This is the cruelty of the state and everyone should know.

Sam Mugumya shouldn’t have the need to fight for his freedom and liberation, but he has to do it, yet again. That is the true state of affairs and shows the sinister plots of the state. Peace.

Sam Mugumya have been behind bars for over 7 years in Ndolo Military Prision without any trial…

This story is a tragic one and it’s never ending. One man is behind bars without charges, indictment or court trial. This being Sam Mugumya, Dr. Kizza Besigye aide and opposition activist who was travelling to Rukungiri on the 16^th October 2014 to take care of his family affairs, as his brother had died and he needed to take care of his frail mother. He was also planning to get connected with the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party members in the district.

We don’t know what happened since then, but we do know he resurfaced suddenly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and been arrested there with other civilians too.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to inform the general public that the Uganda Ambassador to the DRC met the Administrator General of the National Intelligence Agency of the DRC who confirmed that 5 individuals of Ugandan origin were arrested in Eastern DRC on October 21st 2014. The arrested individuals have since then been transferred to Ndolo Military Prison in the outskirts of Kinshasa. On 4th December 2014 Amb. Kinobe was allowed to visit the Prisoners and confirmed the following individuals:

1. Sam Mugumya, aged 35 years, son of Tukahirwa stanley, who called himself “Mukiga William” at the time of arrest.

2. Mugisha Steven 35 years, son of Tibanyeba John of Buyanja, Rukungiri

3. KamukamaAggrey, 30 years, son of Kagurusi Eliab of Buyanja, Rukungiri

4. Kamugisha Joseph 28 years, son of Mugisha Justus of Buyanja, Rukungiri and

5. Bright Nathan 20 years, son of Kwesiga John of Buyanja, Rukungiri” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Press Release, 10.12.2014).

Besigye in the beginning of it all, believed the state would use these kidnapping and arrests in the DRC as a shield and means to claim the opposition was starting ‘rebel’ activity. In a manner of which could be used to hurt Besigye’s future political campaign ahead of the General Elections in 2016. Besigye have had such charges against him and his brother too. So, it wasn’t without any reasoning that Besigye spoke about this in November 2014. A month after the arrest.

The party his been affiliated with has with time paid for and serviced a Congolese Lawyer for the case of Mugumya without any luck. That was done in 2016. We know that the Government of Uganda will not repatriate or secure his home-coming either. While his stuck in prison all these years.

Oryem-Okello said this back in 2016: “Government says Mugumya was engaged in subversive activities and was arrested with dollars and sensitive documents State Minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem Okello told parliament this afternoon that due to lack of an extradition treaty between Uganda and DR Congo, the Congo government has declined to send him back” (Uganda Radio Network – ‘Sam Mugumya Will Not Be Extradited- Govt’ 01.12.2016).

In May 2021 he was able release a poem called ‘We refuse to be victims’ which goes like this:

To bear defeat’s humiliating standard.

Pitiable, helpless, crushed and confused.

That is victimhood’s pathetic face

It soots our effulgent souls

Comrades, pity not us prisoners.

Treat us not as victims

We are proud resolute recusants.

Soldiering on with a smile.

Never pious before the devil.

Pity and contemn the despot.

Our chains condemn his conscience.

Injustice jails the jailer’s humanity.

Drench him in your tears.

Hearken marley’s revolutionary voice bellowing.

Of the despot he said

Pity those with thinning chances.

They have nowhere to hide

The despot is the victim .

The slave of his power.

Branded by debauchery’s hot iron.

Before we become his victims ,

Freedom’s matyrs we shall be.

Shed not sorrowful tears comrades.

Please shed tears of joy.

On victory’s tide we sail .

To a future of freedom.

I just got to say. This man deserves justice. His been served injustice for years and punished by association. Because, he dared to associate and be part of Besigye’s campaigns. He was one of the trusted individuals within the FDC. That’s why he have been serving time and somehow the Ugandan government made an agreement with the Congolese government to keep him in prison.

They have not let him out and neither has Ugandan authorities accepted him back. They will not extradite him back and that is very clear. MPs tried to do this in 2020 and 2021. However, there is no extradite agreement between the DRC and Uganda. Therefore, there is now will to engage or secure this. That is just common knowledge.

It have not mattered that Mugumya have suffered with COVID-19 and other issues as a prisoner. This political prosecution is never ending it seems. The proofs of the allegations haven’t happened and his kept as a civilian in a military prisoner indefinitely it seems.

We know with certainty that the government doesn’t care or concerned. Because Oryem-Okello stated the same facts in 2020 and wouldn’t have him on trial or had a chance of extraditing him. With the same response as before, no agreement so nothing to offer. The diplomats of the Republic in Kinshasa isn’t bothered about it either it seems. Since, his there to this day and they haven’t lifted a finger. This is why his still a jail-bird and no proof of the alleged incriminating behaviour of which he was arrested in 2014.

We are now in November 2021 and his still in Ndolo Military Prison. Mugumya is still behind bars and nothing is done about it.

We need to shed a light on it, because if not… everything goes dark and men like this doesn’t get justice. They don’t get liberty or the freedom they should have. This is injustice and his a political prisoner. His a prisoner of conscience. That is it and it’s pathetic of the Republic to not do anything about it. Try to ensure and secure his passage. Make arrangements with the Congolese and even let him have a fair trial or courtship with his case. Because at this point, his not even proven guilty. His just a commoner behind bars for no apparent reason. A man who went missing in Uganda and suddenly was in custody in another republic. Peace.

Rwanda: Reseu International des Femmes pour la Democratie et la Paix asbl (RifDP) – Rwanda: Repression contre l’opposition et les medias. Graves Inquietudes pour la securite de Victorie Ingabire Umuhoza (20.10.2021)

A Quarantine Memo Part V: A New Normal

27^th May 2020 Oslo

Well, we’re are here again. The world is still not back to standard settings and is work in progress. In some parts, that will never change, because we always need to aspire for greater and better things. Not only for ourselves, but for everyone else, also for the next generation to come. As we are leaving this world behind to them to pick up the pieces where we left off.

So, with that in mind. We are in these times seeing whose the leaders, whose the PR persons in-charge and who matters. Why do I say that? Well, the pandemic like the COVID-19 or the Coronavirus has uncovered the importances of several of functions of society. That has always been vital and had its place. However, now people are clapping for them, cheering them on and even praising their work. Before this, who would have been to pleasant to a shop-clerk? Who would have clapped for nurses and doctors? You would have avoided to do that, just like the plague. Ironically saying that.

We are now at a stage where there is configurations for a new normal. As there are no definite cure yet to the disease, which is still ravaging earth. There is still a steady stream of deaths occurring because of this. It is still spreading and not fully contained. Both because of lack of leadership, discipline and care. However, also because the lack of testing and tracing of it. This in the context of leaders whose reckless and whose self-centred to their position, instead of actually leading their respective nations.

That is why we’re at a stage, where the disease is still “on-the-loose”. There is still unanswered at what stage everywhere is. As there are so many uncertainties. Yes there are areas where there is getting no positive tests for a few weeks. However, this doesn’t change that their deaths worldwide and the curve is going down.

Still, we are risking a lot by re-opening a lot of places. When there been no en-mass testing. Neither been secured anti-body testing either. There are so many loose bottlenecks. That there is issues of what we are succeeding or not. It is true that many places the amount of cases is going down. However, behind the numbers are also the defaults, the ones who wasn’t tested and had symptoms early on and could spread it asymptomatic. That is why this is a grand issue and a disease that will linger on.

When the borders opens up and the travel will come back. Then there will be a surge, especially from places where the nations has been reluctant or haven’t tested on a grand scale. As there are possible a bigger spread than initially reported and the back-log will come at a later date. Just like the changes of numbers of COVID-19 deaths, as the way of announcing and testing of this haven’t always been as accurate. That is why these numbers has been revised and even more damaging than first reported.

Therefore, we are living in troubling times. Yes, this virus has shattered the global tourism industry, airline industry and closed ordinary life for a while. People are still in quarantine, are still Netflix and Home-Office. I am still on home-office, even as I know will travel to the office a few times a week, but not daily as before.

That’s why the new temporary new normal is coexisting now. As we awaits the trials, the tests and possible cure. There are few snakes-oil salesmen who tries to come with something, but these has not been proven. They are selling hope in a bottle and could just have sold a beer instead. The beer at least makes you happy a small moment. After that your giddy, but with a placebo your just getting hurt. When you figure it out doesn’t do it and hasn’t the effects to conquer this beast.

This is why we have to wait and live in this new normal. This semi-quarantined and home-based working life-style. Its fine for now, been months with this. Since Mid-March and we’re in the end of May.

2020 wasn’t as anticipated. No one foresaw this virus and its effects on life. We have lived through and have to carry on. There will be an aftermath, but what will happen with that is unknown. The leaders and representatives who didn’t act, who saw and didn’t follow the concerns early on. Should be questioned, the ones with intelligence and reports from China. They should be questioned and the late lockdowns needs inquiry into. However, expect that not to come from the ones in-charge, but opposition or outside forces pressuring it. Because, they will not take causalities or responsibility unless they get burned.

So, the rest of 2020 will be semi lockdown stage, will be COVID inspired and will have new regulations. Also, we just have to hope the 2^nd wave won’t be a copy of the ones of the Spanish Flue in the early 1900s. Because, then were in for a devastating fall. A fall, that will make this spring and early summer look like a walk in the park. The sad thing about that, is that we have already to many deaths and people catching the disease in this wave. Because, we didn’t do enough collectively here on planet earth. Peace.

Opinion: The government have money [unless your not a priority]

Let me just say, that tonight, this evening I am tired of reading headlines from various of Republics and Countries where they state they don’t have funds for pledges nor supposed basics during this global pandemic. Yes an global pandemic of COVID-19 or the Coronavirus isn’t a planned affair, unless your a conspiracy theorist who makes up ghost stories out of thin air. The rest of us lives in reality and try to figure the best way out of this.

What is boring in these troubling times is when the state says they doesn’t funds for PPE, Masks, Medicine, Salaries for Front-Line workers and whatnot. It is just an endless stream of costs, payments, allocations and expenditure the state has to carry. The imports of sudden extra equipment, ventilators and such. By all means its an expensive enterprise to cover this and ensure enough of the basics. Still, if the people, the citizens and the well-being of them matters. Than this should be shielded first.

However a reason for the lack of funds is that the state hasn’t this as a priority. This isn’t their breadwinner, this isn’t their ballpark. No, this is a side-show, a show where donors, where foreign donations and other comes in to cover the basics and the needed cover. In sunny days this is usually enough, because the ones getting hurt isn’t an priority and the ones whose VIP gets treatment abroad anyway.

That is why the Health Care system isn’t fully functioning nor has the capacity it should have in consideration per capita. The lack of enough beds, ICUs and such are now a contrast to the amount people in the dominion. Therefore, the state has lost the battle, if it gets bad quickly. The state cannot assume they will get help from elsewhere. Since they are already hurting themselves and are damaged by the virus as well.

So in this regard, when the state is complaining and stating lack of funds for this now. Its all about priorities. These states usually has no issues getting loans, grants and donations to cover deficits. They have no issues getting loans and supplementary budgets to secure new revenue-streams in sunny days for infrastructure and development projects. However, securing the well-being of the citizens and their welfare. That is burden it cannot shelter. Not to the max, not to the appropriate levels. That is just to expensive. Unless, a drunk uncle, snappy-nephew or an in-law is kicking in some remitted funds to shelter its own family at family. That is how this goes.

The governments can run their coffers dry, they can create huge deficits in the times of needs. They can boost their stimulus and use the credit, the forecasted revenue and the sales of treasury bonds. All of that cover it in the future, as the government and state can in practicality never cease nor get bankrupt. That as a sovereign state and therefore, has more gains and possible future income to cover debt and deficits.

That is why in these times of need, the government can prove where their loyalty lies. Either its with their citizens or its with the corporate agenda. They can show that solving it and investing in the Health Care system matters.

We can see if it is a priority or just talk. We can see by the pounds sterling, the US dollars or whatever currency spent on it. That its a priority or not. If they priorities it, they are risking a bigger deficit for now. If not, they are shielding the hurt and hoping it just goes back to normal quick. Peace.

A Quarantine Memo Part III: It’s now modified (10.05.2020)

“Kick in the door, waving the four-four

All you heard was Poppa don’t hit me no more

Kick in the door, waving the four-four

All you heard was Poppa don’t hit me no more” – The Notorious B.I.G aka Biggie – ‘Kicking in the Door’ (1997).

Oslo, Norway 10^th May 2020

Well, so here I am at this very moment preparing for yet another week with home office. Things are changing. In my home town they are serving beer and alcohol at the pubs, restaurants are slowly opening again. The normalcy is sort of returning, but with modifications. Less public transport, more home-office and adjustment in concern of cleaning of public spaces.

There are less death, less transmitted disease, the fear and worry of going to the grocery is sort of gone. Even if the knowledge that this could be a temporary state. Because, these sort of pandemics goes in cycles. Even we are going down on the curve as we speak. There is still a possibility of second wave, which can hit as hard or harder. Since people took it easy after the first measures and lockdowns.

We are not the only one, because the economy is the blessing that rules earth. “Cash Rules Everything Around Me, C.R.E.A.M Get the Money, Dollar Dollar Bill Y’All” (Wu Tang Clan). The words of the wordsmiths of Wu Tang still resonates with me too this day. With every living day on this earth, the addiction and the needs for currency gets ever so real.

That is why in the midst of a pandemic. Rising numbers of deaths. The still current escalations around us. Still governments tumbling to fix it. South Korea tried to re-open some functions, they closed them, when there cases connected them to them. They we’re open a hot minute before closing. Therefore, the project re-open needs to be done with care and consideration. Not only to the powerful dollar. That will not solve anything, maybe monetary liquidity of failing enterprises, but lives will be lost over the saving grace of silver coins.

We can wonder for ourselves, if the re-opening will be another social experiment. Where the state with an app and adjustments hopes that lesser people catches the sickness. Less people interact and uphold the social distance, washing of hands and such. Because, sooner or later these lessons might go astray. Since, there is no signs or effects in the open. As everything is normalizing. Has that been considered?

That is the risk of opening, even with the measures at hand. People will behave like people. That is just the way it is. This is the reality. We can hope that all the sanitizers, the cleanliness and all other efforts sticks until a vaccine is on the horizon. However, until then the reality needs to be caution. We have not been under lockdown, under self preserved quarantine for months and not ensured safety of more people. Neither, not having results of public change.

It is easy to forget, but for me… I have been stuck in my own home since mid-March. I am grateful to be as healthy as I went in. However, we can’t loose the end-game here. That we have remedy and cure, that he a fix for the issue. Because, right now, we are losing up for the mighty dollar and not because lives matters. Yes, these months has been a burden on companies, organizations and the state. But, money they can print new every single day, but, but a person only lives once.

That is why that unique person should be valued more than the currency. Yes, we all got to live, have a livelihood and a working society. However, for a short while trading away the perks, the benefits of 2020 and the socialization we are used too. Might do good, because we might extend someone’s life, who has medical conditions, which easily can harm that person even more if it gets COVID-19. That’s why its worth it and that’s the pivotal thing for the self-quarantine.

Not because the challenge was big for me or for anyone else sticking to home office. To not take public transport and follow advice. However, the greater good, the achievement of serving everyone as a citizen and as a person. Yes, it cost, but it is meagre compared to the ones whose really suffering. I just stayed in my home and only went to the grocery. This is nothing compared to others who fought in wars or faced starvation. We are lucky in that sense, that this was our way out of the pandemic for now. Because it could have been much worse.

We just have too see. Never give up and continue on. A luta Continua. Never give up. Never give in. Have hope for a better tomorrow and not let COVID-19 win. Peace.

A Quarantine Memo Part II (26.04.2020)

It’s about that time…

Well, we have gotten this far and still we’re far from over. If you think the sacrifice, the estimated time sitting on your coach revisiting movie classics, reading dusty books and dodging burnt bridges on Social Media will save your ass. Well, this hurdle will take more than that. Even you got more knowledge of binge watching, new shows and seen some low-budget TV shows made in their homes. Still, no reason to zappy. We are here for a reason, it is the COVID-19 season.

I have been in home-office since mid-March 2020 and will be too mid-June 2020. So, my time with this … is sort of only beginning. Washing my hands, social distancing and not seeing my colleges in the flesh, except on Zoom or Microsoft Teams. That is the life now. Nothing to blame, just life I guess. Just like, because of advice from authorities and the state. I’m not taking public transport. Only done it like two-three times over the last month to have a breather to the near mall. To also buy more needed gear to the home, than what I get at the local grocery.

Well, if your thinking I’m complaining. No, I am not. I’m just expressing my lifestyle. As I make the dinners for the wife, as she’s working in the store and I’m at home anyway. So, it feels like my duty to make the home shiny, as best to my ability. Therefore mixing between answering emails, calls and writing things for work. While washing dishes, cleaning floors and dusting. Also, thinking of what to make for dinner. It is life these days.

This quarantine has made life different. Reading the steady stats, seeing the curves. Seeing the amount of fatalities, the discredited groups of people taking up arms and battling the disease. The ones who are on the front-line now, but are not properly compensated. While the bailouts goes to the rich CEOs and the ones skimming the profits in non-crisis.

Well…

Some things never change, the richer get richer, while the peasants stays the pawns on the chess-set. The first ones to send in the battle and the first ones to sacrifice. That is just way it is. We are seeing industries are failing across the board. This because of the lockdowns, not only hotels, tourist hot-spots and whatnot. No, farmers are hurt, their produce is not getting sold. Oil is worthless, airlines broken down and so-on.

We don’t know how things will be post-COVID19, but know that the hardships isn’t over. After the shut-down, the lock-down and closure. The revamping systems, the needed stimulus and new features from the states is needed. Not more austerity, structural adjustment programs and whatnot. That will create more destruction, privatizations will only cuss out more funds from the states, instead of making real deep development. We should know this, but the politicians might trade away today with promises of changes in future. If not they are getting a cut, to cut and stifle the public. That is not new either, but they will rename a run-down car and say its like a 2021 Caddy fresh out the factory. We know the car doesn’t smell new or the engine is pumped. It just missing the ability to get the rain through the windows and clunky sounds from the doors. So, don’t try to sell us this.

This is just what I am thinking, as I am stuck in my home. Working, living and getting by. I am lucky to be in this position. I am blessed and I know it. However, we still need to question the powers to be. As much as we can. Peace.