Justice Musa Ssekaana of the High Court in Kampala has directed state security agencies and the Attorney General to produce detained novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, dead or alive.
Security operatives arrested Rukirabashaija, 33, from his home in Kisaasi, Kampala for insulting President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni and his son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba on Twitter. (Read report here).
He has remained in detention since December 28.
Security agencies have defied a court order to unconditionally release the novelist. The Solicitor General has since ordered Makindye Chief Magistrates Court to provide certified copy of proceedings that led to Nambatya’s orders.
Last week, Basiima filed an application for habeas corpus ad subjiciendum in the High Court.
Basiima wants court to compel respondents in the application — the commander of the elite Special Forces Command (SFC), the head of Criminal Investigations, the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General — to produce Kakwenza dead or alive.
On January 10, Justice Ssekaana ruled that Kakwenza be released from detention and produced in court, dead or alive.
This after hearing submissions from lawyers of Kakwenza and Basiima, who included Eron Kiiza, Luyimbazi Nalukoola and Samuel Ronald Wanda, as well as Christine Kahwa and Richard Adrole representing the Attorney General.
Ssekaana wants Kakwenza produced in the High Court in Kampala on January 12, 2022, at exactly 10am.
The judge’s directive has been issued to Special Forces Command (SFC) boss Brig Peter Candia CID Director Grace Akullo, Police Chief IGP Martins Okoth Ochola and Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka.
