Uganda’s military chief says holding opposition activist ‘in my basement’

Opposition leader says Eddie Mutwe’s abduction ‘a reminder to the world’ of breakdown in law and order in Uganda.

Uganda’s military chief, the son of longtime President Yoweri Museveni, says he is holding a missing opposition activist in his basement and threatened violence against him, after the man’s party said he was abducted.

Eddie Mutwe went missing on April 27 after being grabbed near the capital Kampala by armed men, the National Unity Platform (NUP) party has said.

Mutwe acts as the chief bodyguard for Uganda’s leading opposition figure, Bobi Wine.

In a social media post late on Thursday, Ugandan General Muhoozi Kainerugaba said Mutwe had been captured “like a grasshopper”.

“He is in my basement … You are next!” Kainerugaba wrote on X in response to a post by Wine saying that Mutwe had been abducted.

Kainerugaba, who is known for his incendiary social media posts, also alluded to Mutwe being tortured, saying he had beaten him and shaved his head.

“If they keep on provoking us, we shall discipline them even more,” he said of the opposition.

Kainerugaba’s comments come amid an escalating crackdown on the Ugandan opposition and as Wine was set to launch a “protest vote” campaign in advance of a general election in January.

Spokespeople for the Ugandan government, military and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.

On Friday, Wine – a former singer whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi and who has become the leading opponent to Museveni – said on X that security forces had “just raided and cordoned off our headquarters”.

He also condemned the abduction of Mutwe, telling the AFP news agency that it was “a reminder to the world as to how law and order has broken down in Uganda”.

The Ugandan government has faced international condemnation over the abduction of opposition figures, including veteran leader Kizza Besigye, who was seized in Kenya last year and forcibly returned to face treason charges.

Museveni, who has ruled since 1986 and plans to seek re-election in January, has denied allegations of human rights abuses.

But the Uganda Law Society said the abduction of Mutwe, Wine’s chief bodyguard, was not an isolated incident.

Instead, it is “part of a systematic campaign to silence dissent and crush the aspirations of young people yearning for freedom”, the group said in a statement.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission, which is tasked with investigating abuses and monitoring the government’s human rights record, said it issued a release order directing the authorities to release Mutwe on Friday.

The move was welcomed as a “bold step” by David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of the National Unity Platform party.