For Proscovia Salaamu Musumba, the freedom she once fought to secure for Ugandans has become a deeply personal question: how safe is it to remain in the country she helped shape politically?
The former Bugabula South Member of Parliament has reportedly left Uganda amid fears of arrest and possible detention over her alleged links to opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye, with her current whereabouts abroad still unknown.
Musumba’s reported departure comes against the backdrop of an amended indictment in the ongoing case involving Besigye and former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, in which she says her name was unexpectedly introduced.
Although she had previously dismissed suggestions that she was preparing to flee into exile, her latest remarks during a Uganda Law Society (ULS) X Space discussion on Witness Protection and Safe Evacuation suggest that returning home may not be imminent.
Reports indicate that she could still be processing an asylum application in an undisclosed country, although she has not publicly confirmed seeking asylum or disclosed her location.
If it is confirmed, Musumba would join a growing number of opposition figures who have remained outside Uganda amid the political tensions surrounding Besigye’s prosecution. Former Kiira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda is yet to return to the country since his name was linked to the case. Others like main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) president Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine are also still outside Uganda.
How the Besigye case changed her life
Musumba said her recent troubles began when she discovered that her name had surfaced at Nakawa Magistrates’ Court in connection with the amended indictment involving Besigye and Lukwago.
She was reportedly portrayed as an architect of activities linked to the case, including meetings allegedly organised in European cities.
The allegations came as a shock to the former legislator, who questioned how she could have organised meetings in places she had never visited.
“When my name was mentioned at Nakawa Magistrates’ Court, I was in shock,” said Musumba.
“I thought they were talking about somebody else, not me. I’m alleged to have set up meetings in Geneva, in Greece, and in Brussels. And these are places I’ve never been to.”
Musumba said it took several lawyers intervening to convince her that the allegations could expose her to danger.
“It took a lot of legal support from so many of my legal friends to tell me, ‘Salaamu, you are in danger. Salaamu, you’re not safe. You have been mentioned as an architect,’” she said.
She believes the decision to mention her name had consequences beyond the courtroom, leaving her socially isolated as people became reluctant to associate with her.
“So what was the purpose of naming me? The purpose was to isolate me,” she said.
Musumba described an entire year of living under suspicion, saying acquaintances avoided contacting her because they feared their own names could appear in court records.
“For a whole year, I lived like I was guilty. Nobody wants to associate with you. Nobody wants to call you because they don’t want their name to be on the court register,” she said.
The experience, she added, took a toll on her emotional, physical and psychological wellbeing, with the possibility of torture weighing heavily on her fears.
“Knowing me, it’s a real full plate that I have to deal with emotionally, physically, psychologically, and torture is real,” she said.
A warning to potential victims
Speaking during the ULS discussion, Musumba urged Ugandans who believe they could be targeted to prepare for the possibility of leaving their homes or the country to protect their lives.
She cautioned against viewing flight as an admission of weakness, arguing that survival should take precedence over concerns about how others perceive those seeking safety.
“Listening to the conversation back home, I see many, many potential victims. And saving your life, you shouldn’t look at it as a point of weakness or as a point of shame. It’s not,” she said.
“Because freedom is good. I didn’t know it was good until I didn’t have it.”
Her concerns, she explained, are informed by years of humanitarian work during which she witnessed the consequences of conflict and displacement.
Musumba said she spent a decade working with the Red Cross after 1986, helping people affected by conflict and witnessing the challenges of evacuating families, tracing missing relatives and providing protection to displaced communities.
“The Red Cross, together with other humanitarian agencies, the UNHCR, played an important role in safeguarding humanity, in evacuation, in getting families. Even we had a department called tracing, tracing people,” she said.
She recalled how reception centres for internally displaced people became commonplace as families fled.
The experience left her questioning why humanitarian intervention often came only after violence had already forced people from their homes.
“Why would we be working in dealing with a situation that has already gotten out of hand? Why don’t we try to prevent these situations from occurring?” she asked.
Musumba said the desire to prevent displacement and protect citizens from injustice eventually drew her into politics.
“My calling to politics came out of that: that we must do anything and everything to stop people from being displaced, requiring evacuation, and promote safety, freedom, and justice,” she said.
‘We went back to 1980’
Musumba recalled entering the Constituent Assembly with the hope that Uganda would adopt a Constitution capable of protecting citizens and allowing people with differing political views to coexist.
She said the country’s founding constitutional aspirations were centred on building a society in which citizens could disagree without losing their rights or security.
“At the time of the Constituent Assembly, in the biggest dream that we would make a constitution that would safeguard us all, and that we would use as a tool for growth and growing a human society, where we would all find space, whether we agree or don’t agree,” she said.
But she believes Uganda has since abandoned that vision, arguing that four decades of political developments have brought the country back to the conditions that existed in 1980.
“I thought, really, we have the history to choose a different path. But as it happens now, we only made a big round circle for 40 years, back to the spot we were at in 1980. And so we are not falling in line with our dreams,” she said.
Her concerns now extend beyond individuals named in court proceedings, with Musumba questioning whether established institutions can still guarantee protection for people facing political threats.
She alleged that informers had infiltrated humanitarian organisations, including the Red Cross and UNHCR, undermining their ability to provide safe passage to people in danger.
“I’m sure the informers within the Red Cross, the informers within UNHCR, that they are no longer safety passages for anyone,” she said.
Musumba did not present specific evidence of the alleged infiltration during the discussion.
Nevertheless, she argued that the perceived loss of confidence in humanitarian organisations had left vulnerable Ugandans with few reliable options.
“So we are on our own. We are largely on our own with our gods. And that’s the most frightening part that we are going to have to deal with the worst in our history because all the safety nets have been decapitated,” she said.
Calls for Uganda to establish its own protection systems
Musumba urged Uganda to develop independent mechanisms for protecting witnesses, evacuating people at risk and resolving disputes before they escalate into situations requiring people to flee.
She argued that relying exclusively on international humanitarian organisations could leave vulnerable people without timely assistance.
“We have to replace the Red Cross. We have to replace the UNHCR in their duties and their mandates because we will not get the required timely support that we so badly need,” she said.
She called for protection arrangements that go beyond formal institutional structures and can respond to the specific circumstances of individuals facing threats.
“This is going to happen more and more. It cannot be just structured. We should be able to prepare, to secure in every way possible witnesses and people and actors that find themselves in a situation where evacuation becomes necessary,” she said.
Despite her concerns about the country’s political climate and reports of her departure, Musumba maintained that the ultimate goal should be to ensure Ugandans can remain safely in their homeland.
“The biggest demand that we desire is to live at home and to live in peace, if we can, if we can work for it,” she said.
Meanwhile, another famous Ugandan who is said to have fled into exile is former deputy CDF retired Lt Gen Peter Elwelu, whose ‘witchdoctor’ and driver have been arrested. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
