Uganda: How Uganda’s Unjust Judiciary Made Me Flee to Germany

On the 11th day of January 2022, I was smuggled to Buganda Road court at 8:30 am or thereabouts where magistrate Douglas Singiza presided over the most unfortunate illegalities that encapsulated the bogus cases of disturbing the peace of Gen Museveni and offensive communication against Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, which were preferred against me.

From 28th December when I was subjected to unwarranted and violent arrest by 20 Special Forces Command (SFC) soldiers, to the time I was produced in his court two weeks later, my tormentors had ignored the writ of habeas corpus commanding them to produce me to courts of law or release me unconditionally for I had been held incommunicado for more than the constitutionally mandated 48 hours rule.

My captors didn’t only shirk the court order of the habeas corpus but also tortured me to almost death. By the time I was smuggled to court, without a lawyer nor informing my next of kin, my feet and hands were swollen as though I had elephantiasis, the entire body except the head and stomach were oozing pus from wounds as a result of severe and deep dermatological ulcerations inflicted onto me during the torture. I could hardly walk; I was limping. I looked obese because of the swelling.

All these inhuman beings do not know that descriptive literature is freedom of expression. If I used English to describe their barbaric behaviour and funny physical appearance it didn’t mean abuse or offence.

Because people in power have section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act, legislated to protect themselves from criticism, see descriptive literature as their number one enemy. I pity them.

Whereas in accordance with the law, I have freedom to express myself, the SFC and other government forces have no right to torture me. Torture has never been justified in law be it domestic or international charter. I have the right to express myself and they do not have the right to subject me to torture, but they can, in accordance with the law, take me to court for it to decide whether my descriptive literature is offensive. Unfortunately, they produced me in court without following any legal procedure.

The laws are succinctly written; the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 as amended and other Pari materia like Prohibition and Prevention Torture Act 12 and Human Rights enforcement Act of 2019 not forgetting the numerous international charters to which Uganda is a signatory.

The magistrate only needed to enforce the human rights laws as encapsulated in the said statutes, and stay the proceedings in lieu of sending me to Kitalya Mini Maximum prison on remand considering the fact that I was visibly tortured, I prayed to him to permit me to undress and he sees the wounds crisscrossing my back, thighs, arms, buttocks, legs, and he erroneously whittled down my plea.

That was a miscarriage of justice, I cannot say that court erred in law…it proved to be in the same caboodle of my tormentors to proliferate political persecution yet its role is to dispense justice with utmost impartiality.

Even when I was given cash bail and deposited my passport with the court as a bail condition, upon getting all the medical examination from the best hospital in Uganda, the doctor referred me to Europe to be attended to by the best medics but Singiza whittled down my prayer for the passport reasoning that my condition did not need foreign attention as though it was him to pay the bill.

All the necessary documentation in form of evidence against torture was submitted before the courts, and also reports from the prison and several other hospitals which corroborated grievous torture.

It was necessary that I flee the country and get the referred medication, I couldn’t kowtow to Singiza’s injustice which accentuated or augmented the oppression imposed onto me by my barbaric tormentors. I left the country illegally yes, but I will return, and through Entebbe airport aware of the comeuppance.

The author is a Ugandan novelist currently exiled in Munich, Germany

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