Lukwago & Co Advocates letter to Uganda Human Rights Commission: “Re: Deteriorating Health of Hon. Kyagulanyi Ssentamu A.K.A. Bobi Wine” (18.08.2018)

We need Joint Forces against President Museveni: Not a Besigye Vs Bobi Wine!

 

The late Paulo Muwanga in 1990, while appearing before Human Rights Commission, said: “Ugandans are jubilating over Museveni’s rise to power, although they have no idea of what awaits them. I know President Museveni inside-out and I can even tell from his sitting posture or how he blinks, what he is thinking or plotting. By the time Museveni’s rule ends in 2060, the country will have lost all its possessions and national assets, the political class will divided one against the other and Uganda will be ruins”.

As the days goes by, the mission to disenfranchise the opposition lingers, as the Bobi Wine supporters question the legitimacy of Forum for Democratic Change and Dr. Kizza Besigye. They should all join forces to dismantle the dictatorship and the tyranny. Not let the guards down and try on smaller pieces of the puzzle. Besigye have himself been charged with treason and lived in exile because of the works for the cause. Robert Kyagulanyi are just starting his race against the oppressive machine.

What everyone who cares and are involved should think of is ways to stop the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the President from functioning. As long as he can loot, demote and destroy, he will continue to prosper. His use of militarism and armed forces to control the public, he will not need popular support or the population behind him. Because what he needs is the army and presidential guards to do his bidding.

That is what should be focus of the opposition, to unite and understand, that this regime will not be beaten by ballots or elections. They are doing the same strategy as the previous ones, rigging and intimidation to settle the score.

The people who cares about the cause, should unite and finds ways to conquer and show the NRM. That they cannot hold them down anymore. Not by compliance, but by defiance and actual resistance against the state. I don’t know how, but in ways that hurt the economy and the foreign exchange, so that the militaristic government cannot afford salaries to their soldiers. In that way, with time they might show lack of loyalty, as the state cannot afford the upkeep of the army and mutiny and desertion from the barracks might be in order.

Museveni have for long, played the long game and used all lies and deception. Now is the time, to uproot and show the true reflection of people’s power.

If Besigye’s face is the problem in the struggle, let us put another face and we move on. Its urgent that we recover this country!! I will not allow my face to be a problem; not an obstacle to the liberation of this country. What I will only do is wake up every day to do my best to reclaim our country” Dr. Kizza Besigye at the Press Conference today on the 18th August 2018.

There isn’t a need for bickering inside the block between the opposition, they should use all their methods to dismantle it and show will to overthrow Museveni by the will of the people. They all need to combine themselves and their strengths, all tactics and use, to secure a future. Where the people are represented and not the mere dictatorship.

If the people want another face than Besigye, that is fine, but he has fought for ages for this. The public should see that. His party that was formed while back are run in another manner, than the NRM. That should be seen. Bobi Wine is a lone soldier for the cause, but has backers on all sides of the spectrum. Therefore, how does they plan to fight this and organize the breakdown of the NRM?

That is why, all forces needs to unite, to join forces and see a way out. Not bicker between Besigye and Bobi Wine. We saw how Museveni was able to twist the opposition against each other with the The Democratic Alliance (TDA) and the FDC before and during the campaigns before the General Election of 2016. That time has to move on, as Amama Mbabazi was there splitting the Democratic Party, Uganda Federal Alliance, Uganda People’s Congress and Forum for Democratic Change. All of these split between Mbabazi and Besigye.

If we don’t, than we are living up to the prediction of Paolo Muwanga, we should take that warning and think what we want to achieve. We don’t want Museveni and his kind to win. He has won long enough and his tyranny has taken to many lives. His works has already destroyed enough lives and disenfranchised so many people. There is time to rekindle, retake and finds way to maneuver the regime. So, that it cannot destroy for the next generation. Peace.

Mwenda’s illusions continues to spawn as he defends Museveni over Bobi Wine and Besigye!

Never ever take the words of Andrew Mwenda as a lecture on democracy or on development on a fair society anymore. The insane rhetoric and decisiveness is evident over how he has discussed and argued over Besigye and his supporters. Now he does the same with Bobi Wine. As he is in shackles and tortured. He speaks ill of torturing in his post today. But at the same time, expect people to validate and accept that the Special Force Command defended the Presidential Convoy with live-bullets. That is just insane and show how the apologists of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni are. They are accepting that war-zones are created because of opposition supporters. How ill isn’t society then?

I am just taking a small piece of the text, because it is insulting to our intelligence, to read to much of political voodoo, but it is needed. To show how rare and how foolish it is. Look!

Let me make on thing clear: I do not agree that civilians, however angry they may feel, should pelt stones at the president’s convoy. Leaders like Bobi Wine need to tell their supporters this in plain language. Indeed I call upon Bobi Wine, Mugisha Muntu, Kizza Besigye, Kasiano Wadri and others to condemn those of their supporters who threw stones at the president’s convoy. If SFC soldiers shot and killed 20 civilians throwing stones at the president’s car, I would defend them. I would risk the wrath of the mobs that Bobi Wine leads even if they threatened to lynched me, which is what I expect of them. When someone is guarding a president, and they have a split second to make a decision, they cannot assume someone throwing something at the president’s car is holding a stone, which is harmless. They must assume it is a grenade and should shoot such a person immediately. This is not about Museveni but the president of Uganda. Bobi Wine has potential (and God forbid) to become president. His bodyguards would act exactly like that. He should therefore tell his supporters how to behave or condemn their actions when they don’t listen to him. This is critical for him to distance himself from their hooliganism” (Andrew M. Mwenda – ‘Why we must all condemn the brutal arrest and torture of Bobi Wine’ 18.08.2018).

That this is not about President Museveni, who orders and has Presidential Guards shooting at civilians is beyond me. That Mwenda doesn’t address how perfectly the stones touched the Presidential Convoy, because there are no evident of scratches or dents on the paint. Stones thrown by random civilians doesn’t just hit the windshield, but the whole damn vehicle, have Mwenda looked the photos of how the car of Besigye have looked like after rampage of the police in recent years? If it looked something like that, then it would be believable.

However, Bobi Wine and his supporters shouldn’t throw stones. I don’t think they did. But the State, the President and his forces, shouldn’t shoot to kill, torture, arbitrary arrest, forge evidence and put people’s lives in limbo. Because that is what they have done with plenty of Members of Parliament. Dropping of an ill Francis Zaake at Rubaga Hospital like bad Irish Potatoes. After torturing him nearly to death. Is that justice Mr. Mwenda?

If the supporters of Bobi Wine and Opposition was the extremists he says they are, why are the ones in the riots in Kampala only arrested and not hurting police officers and soldiers. It is the soldiers and police officers who are hurting the civilians. I wonder if Mwenda has stepped out for his office and had taken a brief moment. Instead of just posing his propaganda to people.

As we take the second extract of his post today: “I am also aware that if Bobi Wine and his radical extremists captured power they would not allow me the freedom to criticize them. Him and his supporters don’t stand for anything. They stand against Museveni. They are an intolerant and uncouth group seeking power to settle scores with their opponents. I must make clear that when I talk of his supporters, I am referring to those I encounter online. If he has enlightened supporters they should come out consistently and loudly to denounce and condemn those of their colleagues who employ cyber bullying as a political strategy. To this extent and in spite of his dictatorial tendencies and the occasional brutality of his security apparatus, I find Museveni a more liberal minded, enlightened person under whose leadership dissent against his government has to a large degree been allowed some space” (Andrew M. Mwenda – ‘Why we must all condemn the brutal arrest and torture of Bobi Wine’ 18.08.2018).

Mr. Mwenda, where is Museveni liberal-minded, when he asks everyone to follow his guidelines and visions? Is it liberal, when he went to Bush to fight for his own liberty and take away everyone’s freedom? Please enlighten us! We need it, because I cannot see it or feel it. As the public either meet live-bullet, tear-gas or arrest if they are opposing Museveni. So if it is liberal to detain opposition, than Museveni is that. But I beg to differ. If he was truly liberal, Bobi Wine and fellow MPs wouldn’t be detained. Because they are a threat to Museveni and you. You have a career now because of Museveni. That is why you defend him, with you lack of integrity and lack of understanding.

You are saying the fans of Bobi Wine lacks tolerance, what does Museveni do then, he shoots, kills and destroys, he detains and torture opposition. How much pain has the Bobi Wine supporters done? They have gone to rallies and spoken of freedom from the oppression you support vigorously. What is striking, you have problem with cyber-bullying, but not a big issue of actual torture. Do you hear yourself when you write these texts?

You call other people extremist and hooligans, but the way you defend oppression is into the insane. You talk of liberal ideas and democracy, like it is Monopoly board for Museveni to rule over. But doesn’t accept that Besigye and Bobi Wine might have a path to unlock it. Because right now, everyone have to follow the State House and Museveni.

Would you prefer actual torture Mr. Mwenda, be arrested and put on an unknown location and hurt nearly to death. Or have a friendly reminder online, that your a NRM apologist? I think you prefer the last one. No one want to bodily damaged by someone else, we all want to live in peace and develop ourselves. However, you think the free minded and the ones wishing for a real democracy is threats to your existence, but they are really not.

You are what you are and your trying to put a blindfold on people. They are smarter than you think. Your magazine might be named “independent” but your spirit is not. Bobi Wine and Besigye, have captured something you cannot grasp, because your have swallowed the kool-aid of Museveni. Hope some day you see it, but I think it is too late. Peace.

Will Bobi Wine share the same fate as Gen. Moses Ali did in 1990s?

Back in the day, just years into the National Resistance Movement, there was this General Moses Ali, whose now Deputy Prime Minister. In April 1990 he was charged with treason, for illegal fire-arm and possible rebellion to overthrow the NRM. This was happening as he was a Cabinet Minister and his rebel group had joined the National Resistance Army in the Bush. Therefore, we should remember the story of Gen. Moses Ali, today.

Gen. Moses Ali was supposed to meet President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at the State House on the 7th April 1990. However, his case would spawn a lot of time, the charges being carrying of various arsenal of weapons and ammunition. There after he was held in Lubiri Barracks, as the case got investigations. While the case into the charges was prolonged through the year and his final verdict was done by the magistrate on the 7th January 1991.

December 1991:

He was acquitted of all charges except treason, a capital offense. Ali was granted a $833 bail and ordered to surrender his passport to the state, according to the official at the Luzira prison in Kampala” (AP – ‘Former Minister Facing Treason Charges Freed on Bail’ 14.12.1991). He was later finally released in June 1992.

Why I am telling this story this way?

Well, right now, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, is charged with illegal firearm and treason against the President. This happen in the Gulu Court Martial on the 16th August 2018. He is right now in detention in the Makindye Military Barracks. Therefore, the case for his and fellow Members of Parliament. Is in the similar fashion, as it was for Gen. Moses Ali on the 1980. While he was charged to overthrow Museveni with a rebellion across in Zaire, Bobi Wine is doing so with his allies in Arua, as the Presidential Convoy was stoned. The similarities are still there. Though, the popularity of Bobi Wine is another fashion.

We can see, how the NRM will prolong the sentence and the courts. Just as it has done already with Bobi Wine and fellow MPs, like Mubarak Munyagwa, Francis Zaake, Kassiano Wadri, Gerald Karuhanga and Paul Mwiru. As Bobi Wine will be remanded to the Gulu Court Martial on the 30th August 2018. This case will be prolonged and will not dismissed in the first few days. The NRM will use this and play this one out. Even if the guns are fabricated, as people are thinking they are, because they are guns and ammunition, which the military have monopoly on. Therefore, the charges seems forged and also the destroyed windshield of the car in the Presidential Convoy. The actions of the state, seems to making the opposition criminalized, while making sure the state gets away with killings themselves.

Even if there was nobody dying over the arrest of Gen. Moses Ali. We expect similar prolonged court case over the treason charge towards the ones in this case after the Arua By-Election. Bobi Wine and the MPs whose been charged and arrested since. They will all be in legal jeopardy for months now. The NRM will not give in and the President has usually done this. The same for the treason charges put on Besigye. Therefore, not expect this to be over soon.

Bobi Wine deserves justice, as he and several MPs are delivered injustice. We can hope that the story of Moses Ali doesn’t return, but by the look of things. It seems like the President and NRM will repeat it. Peace.

Statement from Barbie Kyagulanyi after visiting husband Robert Kyagulanyi at Makindye Barrack earlier today (17.08.2018)

Family, friends and well-wishers,

Today I went with lawyers and members of the Uganda Human Rights Commission to Makindye military prisons, and after many days I was able to see my husband with my own eyes. I am first of all thankful to God that he is still alive! Let’s continue to pray for him.
Bobi is in pain. Bobi is hurting EVERYWHERE. We nearly lost him! He wonders how he is still alive after such treatment.

Bobi cannot stand on his own. He has a swollen face- very deformed. At first sight, it is very unlikely that you would recognize him. You may not understand this unless if you see him. His forehead is bruised and his eyes are red. He has many wounds including one on his ear. He seems to have been punched many times on the face. He cannot walk. He was carried into the room where we saw him. He cannot sit straight. He speaks with difficulty and has a lot of pain breathing. He has great pain in the left side ribs and hip. He bled a lot through the ears and through the nose. Blood stains are still visible! He is in such a terrible state and in need of urgent medical attention. I could not believe that an innocent man can be taken through all this because he has a different political opinion.

According to his story, he was not even at the scene where chaos allegedly took place in Arua. He was with friends watching news at a restaurant when news came out that his driver had been shot dead. He quickly went into his room as gun shots raged on, and for many hours throughout the night, he kept hearing soldiers banging doors and breaking into rooms of the hotel. Later, the soldiers came to his room and broke into it. They found him standing in the room and the soldiers immediately ordered him to kneel down. Before he could reach the floor, one soldier hit his head with an iron bar and he fell down. They all descended on him, stepping on his head with boots and hitting him everywhere. He became unconscious thereafter and after so many hours, he realized that he was at the Arua airfield on handcuffs. He can’t tell what they might have done to him during that time. After gaining consciousness, he was given many injections and has no idea what they were for. They took him to Gulu where he was detained. He can hardly remember what took place in court yesterday as he was only regaining consciousness. He was later airlifted to Makindye where he is being detained. I have seen many victims of torture- never have I seen anyone in the state which Bobi is in! When he narrates these stories, you see the kind of trauma he is going through. When you set your eyes on him, you cannot help but wonder what kind of human beings can do such things to a fellow human being.

Here is the good news- Bobi is strong at heart. His resolve has not diminished. His bones have been broken, but his spirit has not been crushed. He is still the husband I met many years ago. He knows that he is innocent of all that he is being accused of. His only crime is standing for justice and for trying to speak for the common person. He was surprised when we told him that he is accused of possessing firearms- he was hearing about this for the first time. Instead, the soldiers who arrested him took away his wallet and the money he had on him. He wonders why he is being tried by military courts! But he knows that this is part of the price he has to pay for what he believes in. He asks Ugandans to remain firm, even in the face of such repression.

He is deeply hurt by his driver, Yasin Kawuma’s death and very sad that he was not allowed to bury him! We told him about the dire health condition of Hon. Francis Zaake and others, and he sent sympathies.

He asked me to be strong for the sake of our children and I promised him that I am strong and I will remain strong. I told him how many people in Uganda and abroad are very concerned about him and he asked me to appreciate you all on his behalf.

Our request is that he is urgently allowed to access his doctors so that he gets the much needed medical attention. Especially since he highly suspects that he underwent internal bleeding.

May God’s angels be with you Bobi in that military facility where I am not. May the God of heaven fight this battle for you and for all of us.

Barbie Kyagulanyi
17th August, 2018

Katikkiro of Buganda’s statement on the unfortunate ongoing situation (17.08.2018)

UHRC: Statement on the findings from the visit to the detained Members of Parliament by UHRC Team (17.08.2018)

Foreign Envoys: Joint Statement on the Arua Municipality By-Election (17.08.2018)

A Message to President Museveni: Free Bobi Wine and Free all them MPs!

We know this is how you torture, how you play with people’s lives. Something you have done nonstop since 1980s. You have had the power, but instead of using it good. Your using it for greed. That greed got to stop. We know it and you know it Mr. President. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, you cannot keep Bobi Wine nor any of the other MPs in prison. As well, as all the other opposition members you have detained during the last two weeks. Because there been plenty, even outside of Aura, where all the focus has been. With the likes of Mubarak Munyagwa as well into the mix.

The ones arrested in Aura, and is still detained are Robert Kyagulanyi, Francis Zaake, Kassiano Wadri, Gerald Karuhanga and Paul Mwiru. All of these forged charges should be let go off, as the Presidential Convoy Car was destroyed by professionals and not by stone. Neither, was the guns and ammunition, Bobi Wine’s property, as the UPDF stated, this was weaponary, that the UPDF have monopoly over. Therefore, he couldn’t even get the hold of that. These charges against Bobi Wine is just merciless and shows the intent to silence you strongest critics.

This is what is happening now, they are all on charges of treason, inciting violence and damage of the Presidential Convoy. While the other Munyagwa have not gotten in the headlines, as he has not been part of Wadri campaign team. Like the rest of them. Still, his case and the others matters. As the Special Force Command and the Police has them in custody.

Mr. President you cannot do this, you have no right to keep them. This is a violation of their rights as citizens and who they represent. What you are doing now is criminalizing innocent campaigning, because they have humiliated you.

President Museveni, if your sincere, we know how you do this, as you have done it to plenty in your time. You started the purge on opposition even right after taking power. For long, you pushed for one-party state, but had to give in. Now, Museveni, you are again at it, this time with the youthful and inspiring MP Bobi Wine and fellow allies of him. Last time it was Dr. Kizza Besigye and his comrades. Before that it was Dr. Paul Ssemogerere and his allies. We know this is who you are.

It is a reason why there are demonstrations in Kamwokya for the second day. You have detained their hero and inspiration. There will be more of this, because it is a matter of time, before you have taken it to far. You have already wasted the Bush-War with your lingering in power and using the same tactics as the ones you overthrow. There nothing else now, than your grip of power. The rest is lies and deceptions. Which the people are tired off.

We are just asking for the release of the innocent of MPs, who you have captured and detained at various locations all over the Republic. You have no right to detain them. None.

You we’re the one sending the order for live-bullet in Arua, you we’re the one who sent your Presidential Guards to the streets and you are the one that has put charges on these people’s head. Even when you are the one who ordered the death, the torture and harassment of all the people. All the unknowns in Arua and beyond. That is all on you and your tyranny.

Time to man up and take responsibility, Mr. President. Man up and stop crying foul, when we know that your the one who is in-charge and who is responsible. Peace.

Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine – Facebook Update (16.08.2018)

Today we spent the whole day in Gulu. Bobi Wine was produced before the military court and charged with three counts of illegal possession of firearms. No one else was permitted to see him including his family and the press, except lawyers Hon. Asuman Basalirwa and Hon. Medard Ssegona. He has been remanded to Makindye military prison until 23rd August, 2018.

According to the two lawyers, Bobi is in a very worrying state. He was badly tortured. He cannot stand, sit or even walk on his own. His face is badly deformed and he has a fractured back and hip. He has wounds all over his body, including one on his head and ear. The lawyers also say that he has not yet fully regained consciousness and does not fully appreciate what is going on around him. He could barely talk coherently to them.

Friends of Bobi home and abroad, this is the state of affairs!

Thank you all for the love, concern and support.

Admin.