Daily Monitor
Monday March 08 2021
Ms Esther Nakimera, mother of Baker Kawooya cries while giving her heart-breaking testimony. Inset clockwise; Ms Mercy Natukunda wife of abducted Vincet Makenya; Ms Eron Nanyonga, wife of missing Vincent Nalumoso, 28; Ms Stella Nayiga, wife of hijacked Kassim Miggade and Mr Matthew Kafeero, brother of kidnapped Michael Ssemuddu
Advertisement
Eron Nanyonga, wife of Vincent Nalumoso, 28
I have three children with my husband, and I have been moving since December 1, 2020 to any remand centre [that I know] to express the kind of suffering that I am going through since they took him.
At all the centres I visit, they tell me to go to police where they told me from the start that they don’t keep prisoners.
Uganda held presidential and parliamentary elections on January 14. In the months before, armed men in “drones” abducted people from markets, taxi stops, petrol stations, roadsides, and homes. Hundreds of disappearances have been reported in the press and on social media. President Museveni himself, discussing what he described as “so-called disappearances”, said last month that the army had arrested more than 300 people. Most of those taken are young men with links to the National Unity Platform (NUP), the opposition party Bobi Wine leads.
For this story, Al Jazeera spoke to the relatives of 17 people who have allegedly been abducted in central Uganda since November 2020, as well as witnesses, activists, local political leaders and lawyers. We also spoke to 10 more people who say they were taken by security forces and released, after periods of detention ranging from a few hours to two months. Where possible, we cross-checked stories with official documents such as court fi