Armed men suspected to be state security operatives have dropped National Unity Platform (NUP) coordinator for the Ankole sub-region Bright Muhumuza at his home in Kakoba Central Cell, Kakoba Ward of Mbarara City days after he was ‘abducted.’
The suspected security operatives dropped Muhumuza in Kakoba at about 1am on March 21, 2025.
These ‘operatives’ picked Muhumuza from Calabash Restaurant in Mbarara City on Tuesday, March 18, 2025.
The NUP Ankole coordinator says the armed men blindfolded and bundled him into a drone vehicle (Toyota Hiace vans notorious for use in kidnaps by state operatives).
The vehicle was registration number UAK 707G, according to NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine.
He added that he believed that his ‘abductors’ were from the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT), and that they took him to Mbuya Military Barracks.
BRIGHT MUHUMUZA ABDUCTION WORRIES OPPOSITION POLITICIANS IN WESTERN UGANDA
In light of the incident, opposition politicians in Mbarara said they were scared, noting that things that things they had been seeing in Kampala had started happening in Mbarara.
In Uganda, a number of opposition politicians have been abducted on several occasions by men in civilian clothes using drone vehicles. These politicians have reported being beaten or tortured in gazetted and ungazetted detention centers.
Others were arraigned in a military tribunal while others were found abandoned on roads or near their homes.
In a joint press conference, officials from NUP and the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) urged security agencies in the area to guarantee opposition politicians security.
Peter Mpaka, the general secretary of the NUP for Mbarara City, expressed concern about the abduction of Muhumuza, giving the state 24 hours within which to release Muhumuza. Interestingly (and maybe by sheer coincidence), within that ultimatum, Muhumuza was dropped at his home.
Mpaka also posed the following question to the state, “Is it an offence to support Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, Dr Kizza Besigye or any other opposition leader, especially in Western Region?”
Robert Twesigye, the chairperson of the PFF, described Muhumuza’s abduction as an absurdity akin to the oppression faced under previous regimes, particularly during the 1980s when regime operatives targeted opposition leaders and their supporters. He questioned why the regime had turned it a crime to support opposition leaders.
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