A former Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) intelligence officer has publicly broken ranks with the government and military establishment, releasing a lengthy statement and video material in which he alleges that security agencies operate parallel detention structures used to abduct, torture and disappear Ugandans.
Herbert Mabonga Matanda, who identifies himself as a former UPDF lieutenant, made the allegations in a 30 September 2026 statement titled “State of Nation Address on Governance, Security-Intelligence, Corruption and Human Rights in General.”
The statement has emerged alongside video material circulating on social media that supporters of the missing opposition activist Sam Mugumya claim shows him in detention.
Mabonga claims that he joined the UPDF on August 8, 2011 and served as an intelligence officer at the Defence Intelligence and Security headquarters, formerly known as the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).
He further says he served as an aide to the late Gen Aronda Nyakairima between 2014 and 2015 and to the late Brig Gen Tom Kabuye Kikoyo from 2019 to 2025.
“I am Lt. Herbert Mabonga Matanda, who joined UPDF on 08 August 2011, an Intelligence Officer at the Defence Intelligence and Security Headquarters formerly identified as (Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence and Security-CMI),” he states.
“I am also a former aide to the late Hon. Gen. Aronda Nyakairima (2014/15) and the late Brig Gen. Tom Kabuye Kikoyo (2019/25).”
The claims about his military career and former postings have not been independently established through the reputable sources reviewed for this report and are therefore presented as Mabonga’s account.
Mabonga’s intervention comes as questions surrounding the whereabouts of Sam Mugumya remain unresolved more than a year after his disappearance.
Mugumya disappeared on August 26, 2025, after witnesses reported that armed men took him from NIM Hotel in Nyamitanga, Mbarara City.
At the time, witnesses described men in military uniform and plain clothes taking Mugumya away in an unmarked vehicle. Police and the UPDF denied knowledge of his detention.
His lawyers subsequently sought a writ of habeas corpus.
On September 5, 2025, the High Court ordered authorities to produce Mugumya before a competent court, in Mugumya Sam v Chief of Defence Forces and Others, Miscellaneous Cause No. 227 of 2025.
The UPDF later denied holding him, with a military officer swearing that searches of relevant detention records had found no record of Mugumya being held by the army.
The dispute therefore produced two directly conflicting positions: Mugumya’s lawyers alleged military detention, while the military maintained that he had never been in its custody.
The controversy intensified in July 2026 when a short video emerged online purporting to show Mugumya in a severely weakened condition.
The footage has subsequently been associated online with allegations that Mugumya was held at a facility in Kasenyi associated with the Special Forces Command.
However, the video’s location, date, provenance and chain of custody have not been independently established.
In his statement, Mabonga presents his decision to speak publicly as the result of what he describes as a breakdown of trust in the government and military leadership.
He says he eventually stopped serving in the UPDF after becoming disillusioned with the direction of the institution.
“I wish to inform the Country that I informally ceased my services within the Uganda People’s Defence Forces-UPDF as any Ugandan who has lost trust and confidence in the Government of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and reckless military commands of his son Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba,” Mabonga states.
He accuses the leadership of having departed from the army’s constitutional responsibility to serve Ugandans.
“…a Government that has since many years ago derailed and ceased from its mandate of serving the People of the republic,” he says.
Mabonga also invokes the oath he says he took as a military officer, arguing that his decision to speak is connected to what he regards as his continuing patriotic obligations.
“I am fully aware of my obligations as a patriotic cadre and nationalist,” he says, adding that he understands “the aspect of National integrity and dignity which I have often represented with honour and high respect considering the oath I swore before the Fountain of Honour.”
The most serious allegations in the statement concern what Mabonga describes as a parallel force operating alongside the UPDF.
He alleges that the force consists of operatives drawn from the Defence Intelligence and Security structure and Special Forces Command.
“Ugandans should know that besides that pro-people army (UPDF), a section of commanders resorted for a couple years to develop parallel forces besides the UPDF mandated under the constitution of Uganda,” Mabonga says.
He claims the alleged force is “a combination of operatives selected under DIS and SFC concealed under JAT who dress in black attire with head gears that cover entire head.”
According to Mabonga, the alleged parallel structure is responsible for operations involving abductions and disappearances.
“This parallel force contravenes with the principles of the UPDF as mandated by the constitution of Uganda, and it is the force that mostly use drones on tasking to kidnap, abduct and disappearance of innocent Ugandans in connection to their political, social and religious affiliations,” he alleges.
Those claims have not been independently verified.
Mabonga further alleges that the same force was involved in violence during the Kawempe parliamentary by-election and other operations around the country.
“The established parallel force is responsible for beating up innocent Ugandans who attempted exercising their democratic and freedom rights in Kawempe by-election and other areas across the country,” he says.
Mabonga goes further, alleging that the purported parallel force is involved in the treatment of people he describes as political prisoners.
“This force is responsibility and assigned to torture and dehumanize the abducted Ugandans (political prisoners),” he states.
The statement’s wording stops short of providing independently verifiable evidence establishing that every detention or abuse allegation attributed to the alleged force occurred as described.
But the allegations have gained particular attention because they coincide with the unresolved Mugumya case and earlier allegations concerning unofficial detention facilities.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented allegations of unlawful detention and abuse in unauthorised places of detention in Uganda, including facilities associated with security agencies. Its investigations have included allegations of torture, incommunicado detention and denial of access to lawyers and relatives.
Amnesty International has also reported allegations of torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention of perceived government opponents in Uganda.
Those historical reports do not independently establish Mabonga’s latest allegations, but they provide context for why claims involving secret or unofficial detention facilities have attracted significant attention.
The former officer’s account is particularly significant in relation to people allegedly taken away in “drones”—the term widely used in Uganda to describe unmarked vehicles associated with alleged abductions.
Mabonga directly accuses the alleged parallel force of using such vehicles.
He says the group conducts operations resulting in people being “kidnap[ped], abduct[ed] and disappear[ed]” because of their political, social or religious affiliations.
That allegation echoes the circumstances reported by witnesses in Mugumya’s disappearance, although it does not independently establish that the men who took Mugumya belonged to the alleged unit described by Mabonga.
Mabonga also makes allegations involving non-Ugandan nationals.
He claims that two Rwandan nationals were killed at CMI in Mbuya by a unit he identifies as JAT.
He names them as Kayitare Fred, also known as Kamaliza, whom he says died in 2023, and Magezi Emmanuel, whom he says died in 2020.
“Of course some foreigners have suffered as victims,” Mabonga says, citing “two Rwandan Nationals killed at CMI in Mbuya by JAT department.”
He also alleges that some Rwandan and Congolese nationals have been forcibly extradited or deported through security operations.
These allegations couldn’t not be independently verified.
Mabonga’s statement is not limited to disappearances and security operations.
He claims that, while serving in military intelligence, he investigated corruption within several government ministries, departments and agencies.
“Fellow Ugandans, as a true patriotic and intelligence officer of the military intelligence department, I have investigated and unveiled the vice of corruption exhibited in several Ministries, Departments and Agencies,” he says.
Among the institutions he names are the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations, the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, the National Science, Technology and Engineering Initiative, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the President and the Office of the Auditor General.
Mabonga alleges that the corruption is systemic and claims that officials who expose it face retaliation.
“The corruption is highly systemic across the MDAs and it rooted from the Executive authority below which makes it more dangerous and difficult to fight it at other level of Government,” he says.
He further alleges that attempts to report evidence have resulted in whistleblowers being targeted.
“Several attempts have been made with evidence to address to the authority about this systemic corruption, there’s no action taken instead the perpetrators are promoted and reappointed in higher positions than ever whereas the reporters are hunted for assassination or transfers or arbitrary arrested and detained with no charges for longer periods,” he alleges.
Those accusations are Mabonga’s claims and have not been independently established.
The former officer also makes allegations concerning the government’s current anti-corruption campaign.
He specifically mentions Local Government Minister Balam Barugahara and junior minister Justine Namere.
“As far as the alleged corruption drive is concerned by Hon. Balam Barugahara, Minister for Local Government and his junior Minister Hon. Justine Namere, I wish to inform the country that it is not a corruption drive, rather a political mobilization for Gen Muhoozi on his political intentions in the political arena,” Mabonga alleges.
He calls for greater scrutiny of the Office of the President, State House and the other institutions he names.
“For Hon. Balam’s effective corruption drive, I authoritatively guide him to audit Office of the President/State House and those MDAs mentioned earlier,” he says.
He also makes allegations concerning the handling of corruption cases involving senior officials, including Anita Among.
“When the real corrupt are apprehended and subjected to prosecution likes of Rt. Hon. Anita Annet Among and her group, we have instead observed the President along with his son interfere with the justice process by ordering their release or bail,” he alleges.
These allegations should not be interpreted as establishing that the President or any named official interfered with a judicial process. They are Mabonga’s assertions.
Mabonga’s statement also directly addresses supporters of the ruling National Resistance Movement.
“To the NRM Government/supporters, there’s still vacuum for you to think about Uganda beyond President Museveni and his family,” he says.
He objects to the prospect of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba succeeding his father politically while serving as CDF.
“The issue of imposing his son Gen. Muhoozi (CDF) on Ugandan is out of context,” Mabonga says.
He calls for what he describes as an end to the personalisation of the military and security agencies.
“It’s high time to stop personalizing and misusing the National Army (UPDF) and other security agencies against Ugandans,” he states.
He then warns that public frustration could eventually produce a crisis.
“If you decide to pay a deaf ear, time will come when no amount of force that can afford to contain the tormented Ugandans,” Mabonga says.
Despite the breadth of Mabonga’s allegations, the most immediate issue remains the whereabouts of Sam Mugumya.
The former opposition activist disappeared in August 2025. A High Court order subsequently required authorities to produce him, while the UPDF denied holding him.
A later video purporting to show Mugumya in detention intensified the controversy, but its provenance and location remain unresolved.
Mabonga’s statement now introduces an alleged insider account of how a parallel security structure operates and claims that such structures are involved in abductions, torture and disappearances.
But his allegations remain allegations unless independently corroborated.
The key questions therefore remain unchanged: Is Sam Mugumya alive? Where has he been held? Who took him from Mbarara? And can the video and the alleged detention facilities be independently authenticated?
The answers will require more than social-media circulation. They would require evidence capable of being independently examined—including the original footage, metadata and chain of custody, testimony from people who allegedly saw Mugumya, official detention records, forensic evidence and, ultimately, a transparent investigation.
For now, Mabonga’s statement has added an extraordinary first-person account to an already documented dispute over Mugumya’s disappearance, while leaving the central mystery unresolved.
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