Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) insist that hundreds of their supporters who were abducted by regime operatives in Kampala between 2019 and 2021, remain unaccounted for up to date.
The party Secretary General Lewis Lubongoya on Sunday shared a list of 18 people NUP claims are part of a group of their supporters still missing 3 years after the infamous November riots in Kampala and Jinja. The riots triggered hostile response from security leading to arrests and abductions.
The list of 18 NUP missing supporters as per 01, October 2023 according to Lubongoya:
1. John Bosco Kibalama (Abducted from Kanyanya on 3rd June 2019).
2. Semuddu Michael (Abducted from Kasubi on 28th November 2020).
3. Damulira John (Abducted from Kisekka Market on 21st December, 2020).
4. Mbabazi Moses (Abducted from Kisekka Market on 26th November 2020).
5. Nalumonso Vicent (Abducted from Bugolobi on 1st December, 2020).
6. Lukwago Martin (Abducted from Bugolobi on 3rd November, 2020).
7. Kanatta Muhammad (Abducted from Mukono on 23rd December, 2020).
8. Sempija Yudah (Abducted from Mukono on 19th December, 2020).
9. Musisi Mbowa (Abducted from Kisenyi, Kampala on 18th December, 2020).
10. Kirya Peter (Abducted from Nansana on 1st December, 2020).
11. Wangolo Shafik (Abducted from Nansana on 3rd December, 2020).
12. Zimula Dennis (Abducted from Nansana on 25th November, 2020).
13. Luwemba Mustafa (Abducted from Nansana on 19th November, 2020).
14. Mubiru Hassan (Abducted from Kawaala on 20th November, 2020).
15. Ssesaazi Isma (Abducted from Makindye on 19th November, 2020).
16. Kisembo Godfrey (Abducted from Mubende town on 12th February, 2021).
17. George Kasumba (Abducted from Kyotera on 19th January, 2021).
18. Baguma Joseph (Abducted from Kyebando in December 2020).
In a message posted on social media, Lubongoya castigated the Ugandan government for refusing to disclose the whereabouts or what happened to their supporters despite having supplied the lists together with the phone contacts of supporters’ families to Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) and other state agencies.
While releasing a report on the investigations into NUP missing supporters early this year, UHRC boss Mariam Wangadya accused NUP of spending a lot of energy in vilifying the commission yet they have done very little towards providing information that can lead to the recovery of the people they claim to have been abducted.
Wangadya further accused NUP leaders of using the abductions to obtain political mileage which she said should stop. She instead advised the party to come up with a better manifesto that would appeal to voters instead of claiming to be victims of abductions yet they are not.
She however expressed the commission’s readiness to intervene but implored the NUP leadership to also furnish her office with National Identification Number- NINs alongside contact numbers of the next of kin, as sone of the key requirements to help in their investigations to ascertain the circumstances under which the supporters went missing.