By Spy Uganda
Court has once again ordered security agencies holding novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija to ‘vomit’ his dead body.
The fresh order comes after Eva Basiima, the wife of Kakwenza mid this week sued the elite Special Forces Command (SFC) boss Brig, Gen Peter Candia, Grace Akullo the director of Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), Martins Okoth Ochola, the Inspector General of Police, and the Attorney General over the continued detention of her husband without trial.
In an application filed before the civil division of the High court, Basiima says that her husband was arrested from their other home in Kisaasi, Nakawa Division in Kampala by armed officers last week, and he has since remained inaccessible. Basima says that she got an opportunity to see Kakwenza on Monday when plain-clothed men and armed SFC soldiers drove him to their upcountry home in Iganga district, eastern Uganda to conduct a house search for three hours.
Basiima adds that when Kakwenza was brought for the search, he looked tortured, frail, and was limping with a blood-stained vest and underwear.
Now in response to her outcry, Court has ordered top security bosses sued by Basiima to immediately produce the suspect before court dead or alive. According to police, Kakwenza is battling charges of ‘computer misuse act’ after he allegedly abused President Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Order reads, “Take notice that this Honourable Court will be moved on the day of 10th Jan 2022 at ,o’clock in the forenoon/afternoon or soon thereafter, as counsel for the Applicant shall be heard on an application for a writ of habeas corpus and subjiciendum on behalf of: KAKWENZA RUKIRA-BASHAIJA to the effect that;
(a). An order that a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum should issue to –
(i) Commander Special Forces Command
(ii) Director Criminal Investigations Directorate
(iii) The Inspector General of Police &
(iv) Attorney General Of Uganda
(b). To have the body of the Applicant brought and presented by the Respondents before this Honourable Court on the day of 10th Jan 2022 at O’clock in the fore/afternoon or soon therenfter and receive all and singular such matters or things as this Court shall there and then consider concerning him on his behalf on the grounds set out in the affidavitn of BASIMA EVA and MUHINDO MORGAN, annexed hereto at the hearing of the Application.”
The above orders come for the second time since on Tuesday, Makindye Chief Magistrate’s court grade one magistrate Irene Nambatya issued an order directing the government to unconditionally release Kakwenza. This was on grounds that Kakwenza had been in detention for more than the mandatory 48 hours without being arraigned in court which violates his constitutional right to liberty and fair hearing.
The state has however continued to defy that court order and Kakwenza’s lawyer Eron Kiiza says he has been denied access to his client and that he had been tortured while in custody.
“Police are fearing to produce him in court with torture marks, that’s why they are delaying to bring him to court,” he said.
Rukirabashaija has been repeatedly arrested since “The Greedy Barbarian” was published. He has said he was tortured while being interrogated by military intelligence about his work. At the time, he was accused of breaching Covid-19 social distancing rules, inciting violence and promoting sectarianism. (https://hydrogen.aero/)
He described his time in detention as “inhumane and degrading” in his most recent book “Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous”.
Meanwhile, in October 2021, Kakwenza was awarded as the winner of International Writer of Courage at the PEN Pinter Prize function. This annual award is normally presented to a person who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs.
