A group of youth leaders from opposition political parties have asked Parliament and the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) to rein in security agencies and demand answers in the alleged torture of Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake Butebi and other acts of gross human rights violation meted out on Ugandans during the Covid19 lockdown.
Zaake is currently admitted at Rubaga Hospital in Kampala after he was transferred from Kiruddu Hospital on Wednesday. He had been detained at the Uganda-Iran Hospital in Naguru for days before he was produced in a Mityana Court on Monday where Magistrate Elias Kakooza refused to formally charge him because of his (Zaake’s) worrying health condition.
Now, seven youth leaders have expressed concern on the manner in which Zaake, the People Power pressure group youth leader, has been treated since his arrest from Mityana on April 19 for distributing relief food items contrary to a presidential directive barring politicians from doing so.
The leaders included Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) National Youth League Chairperson Walid Mulindwa Lubega, Democratic Party (DP) National Youth Leader Christopher Okidi and Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) National Youth Coordinator Abubaker Matanda. Others are People’s Progressive Party’s Lynnet Nanyonjo, Conservative Party’s Solomon Musoke, JEEMA’s Haroona Musanje and Uganda People’s Congress’ Brenda Atim Kinyera.
These have warned security agencies such as Uganda Police Force (UPF), Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and Internal Security Organisation (ISO) against “illegally arresting and torturing youth, other political leaders and activists.”
They also want UHRC to take “keen interest in the human rights violations taking place during the lockdown, and expedite a process of dispensing justice to all the aggrieved parties more particularly Hon. Zaake who was arrested and tortured to near death.”
“UHRC should also reign over the conduct of security agencies over their high handedness in handling suspects,” the seven youth leaders demanded in a joint statement issued Thursday.
They have also challenged Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, relevant committees and all MPs to investigate “the recent conduct and acts of torture by overzealous security agencies even against their fellow colleagues like Hon. Zaake and many fellow Ugandans.”
Credit: mulengeranews.com
