Uganda: Securing Justice for Detained and Tortured Author

(Nairobi) – Ugandan authorities should urgently investigate reports that military officers tortured exiled satirist and government critic Kakwenza Rukirabashaija while he was forcibly disappeared for 14 days, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should unconditionally drop all charges against the author and ensure that all security agents involved in his torture and enforced disappearance are held accountable.

On December 28, 2021, military officers broke into Rukirabashaija’s home in Kampala, beat and blindfolded him, confiscated his phone and drove with him to an unknown location where he was detained for 14 days without access to his family or his lawyers. On January 11, 2022, police charged Rukirabashaija with “offensive communication” for his tweets criticizing President Yoweri Museveni and his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba. On February 9, two days after a court rejected his request for the return of his passport, Rukirabashaija said he had fled the country to seek treatment for wounds caused by torture.

“It is intolerable that Ugandan security forces continue to torture and mistreat detainees,” said Oryem Nyeko, Ugandan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of prosecuting critics over tweets, Ugandan authorities should investigate this case and many other serious allegations of torture by state security in recent years.”

Rukirabashaija told Human Rights Watch that military officers beat him, forced him to dance to music for hours, ripped his body out with pliers, and injected him with unknown substances. Officers questioned him about his dealings with European Union, US Embassy and British Council staff, and about his book Banana Republic, Who recounts his previous arrests and detentions by the military in April and September 2020. He said officers forced him to videotape an apology to Museveni and Kainerugaba.

On January 4, a court ruled an unconditional release order, but the military ignored him. On January 10, the High Court granted Rukirabashaija’s wife, Eva Basiima, her application for habeas corpus and ordered the government to produce it in court. But rather than release him, authorities charged him on January 11 with “offensive communication” under the Computer Misuse Act 2011 over tweets he posted between December 24 and 28. on Museveni and Kainerugaba. The tribunal Rukirabashaija in pre-trial detention at Kitalya prison, on the outskirts of Kampala.

On January 21, a the court granted bail to Rukirabashaijabut six men seized him as he was leaving the prison and took him to Makindye military barracks in Kampala.

Rukirabashaija told Human Rights Watch that in Makindye a doctor first examined him and then he was taken to Kainerugaba, who told him to stop writing. He was then taken home and told not to talk about what had happened.

Ugandan authorities have repeatedly used the Computer Misuse Act to stifle freedom of expression online, particularly if it involves criticism of senior government officials. Section 25 of the Act provides that “offensive communication” applies to anyone who “deliberately and repeatedly uses electronic communications to disturb or attempt to disturb the peace, tranquility or right to privacy of ‘one person”. Those found guilty could be required to pay a fine or serve up to a year in prison, or both.

Authorities have targeted other activists critical of the president and those close to him under the same law. In August 2019, a court convicted a well-known academic and activist, Stella Nyanzi, and sentenced her to 18 months in prison for a poem she posted on Facebook in 2018 criticizing President Museveni. A High Court judge ruled in February 2020 that Nyanzi’s right to a fair trial had been violated during these proceedings and quashed his sentence.

On February 5, 2021, plainclothes officers arrested Michael Muhima, a law student, at his home in Kampala over a tweet parodying police spokesperson Fred Enanga. Authorities later charged Muhima with “offensive communication”. Muhima was imprisoned and denied access to his family and lawyers for five days before being released on bail.

Ugandan law and international instruments prohibit arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention and torture. The 1995 constitution guarantees the protection of individual liberty and provides that a person arrested or detained must be detained in a place authorized by law. The constitution further requires that detainees be brought before a court within 48 hours of their arrest and have the right to reasonable access to relatives, lawyers and medical care.

When state agents deprive a person of their liberty, but then conceal information about their whereabouts and whereabouts, this is an enforced disappearance, strictly prohibited in all circumstances by international law.

Ugandan law criminalizes torture under the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act of 2012, and the Human Rights (Enforcement) Act 2019 provides for the personal liability of public officials who commit human rights violations.

“Rukirabashaija’s arrest is just the latest in Uganda’s growing crackdown on comments deemed critical of the government,” Nyeko said. “Authorities should end the criminalization of protected expression online and offline and respond to legitimate concerns raised by critics instead of persecuting them.”