News Analysis Health Business

Dd d< Happiness and EAC's Open

<   

Issue No. 471 May 26 - June 01 , 2017 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

Nalufenya
Where innocents are
tortured to confess
Stories from victims of police brutality put
Kayihura, Muhoozi, Museveni on the spot

www.independent.co.ug
COVER STORY

Nalufenya
Where innocents are
tortured to confess
Stories from victims of police brutality put
Kayihura, Muhoozi, Museveni on the spot

By Haggai Matsiko and Agather Atuhaire

March 23 started like an ordinary day for Godfrey Musisi, 55, until, out of
QRZKHUHSROLFHRIFHUVGHVFHQGHGRQKLVFRPSRXQGLQD.DPSDODFLW\
suburb. A few hours later, he was a prisoner in the notorious police deten-
tion about 80kms away at Nalufenya in Jinja, eastern Uganda. He was being
accused of complicity in the murder of Assistant Inspector of Police, Andrew
Felix Kaweesi, his driver, and bodyguard on March 17.

10 May 26 - June 01 , 2017

B
COVER STORY
ut Musisi, who is When he describes his latest
now out on bail,
insists he is innocent.
arrest, it is not easy to sort fact
from embellishment. He says
Victims
speak out
So how did this man
end up being arrest- shamba boy, Stewart Ainebyoona,
ed, and tortured, for where he (Musisi) was. Then,
crime he possibly knows nothing within seconds, about ten police
about? And he is not alone. Abdu DhW&
In cases that have shocked the proof vests and black uniforms Rashid D,
emblazoned with the CT initials Mbaziira, ,
local and international human of the Counter Terrorism unit, had ED/D
53
rights agencies, police has gone on
rampage, rounded up people in him. Many others could be seen ,Dd
the hundreds, and tortured many Higenyi 
of them to extract confessions. over 40 altogether, he estimates. Aramanzani, 
The Independent has inter-  32 ,
viewed multiple sources, includ- holding a gun on his head asked. 
ing victims, and looked at mul- By the time his wife emerged,
tiple documents to put together D<<,
the story about Nalufenya, the Musisi into his house. They were 
Mugerwa 
police detention facility located on turning everything upside down,
Yusuf Z
 grabbed everything from small

 pieces of papers, his old phones
notoriety as a torture chamber. and land titles (He hasnt recov-
hW&
 ered any of these things weeks
Bruhan d
after he was released). They d
facility) but is now called security searched Musisis tenants too.
Balyejusa,

installation (a no-go area for civil- He says at one point he heard 33 
ians).
The suspects here, police says, gun at his head telling someone
ED,
are on charges of terrorism, abet- on phone that they had found Baganda ,
ting terrorism, aggravated rob- Umar, ,,
bery and murder. Most of those - 40 
brought here are detained beyond ed to ask what was going on. It
the Constitutional requirement of was as if they were ready to shoot
48 hours without being produced  Ahamada D<D
in court. Many are kept incom- warned him to be careful with d
Senfuka, ,
municado for months. 35 ,
 Then he and his wife, Nankya 
Grace, were bundled onto the
are being tried for the murder of police truck and told they were
Kaweesi, have been documented being taken to the Kiira Police D
Hassan E

- Station but, as he noticed the Tumusiime, 


 47 
Musisi in a case against police he realised he was headed for the
over violating his constitutional Nalufenya dungeons.
rights. Musisi says Nalufenya has four Ibrahim ^
All of the suspects have been detention rooms and the one he Kissa,
EW,
was in had 27 detainees. It was &
in a drum full of water and their dark with no ventilation and a 37 ,E

noses, mouths and even anuses
- blankets to sleep. He says they
DK
per. ate one meal of posho a day and Osman E
Musisi knows the inside of the were allowed only 5 minutes to
Mohamed, d
Nalufenya torture chambers quite sun bathe. 
37

Some of the detainees had been <

many times. in the dungeons for four months,
He narrates a strange story nine months and others a year ,
and a half, he said. Some of them Magambo 
Nalufenya during the latest arrest. coughed so heavily he feared Hamidu, 
 would contract Tuberculosis. ,
30
interrogating him when another Musisi says it was during inter- 
intelligence operative Musisi had rogation that he realised he had
ever worked with, walked in and been arrested as a suspect in the DE,
 Kaweesi murder case. Kyambadde 
Joshua, 
When they pointed at Musisi  
the new man was surprised. Where were you on Friday 17th? 23 
 Do you know Kulambiro? Do

May 26 - June 01 , 2017 11

COVER STORY

A Police truck at Nalufenya. INDEPENDENT PHOTO/JIMMY SIYA

you know how to ride a bike? Do you know

He says to break him, on the third day, an

him to a room, threw something there and
-
ing from my eyes and mucus from my nose


could feel his lungs burning.

Musisi reveals incomprehensible demand
his tormentors allegedly made. They asked
him to confess that Security Minister Henry
Tumukunde approached him to kill Kaw-
eesi and Kayihura.
Apparently, when he refused, Tumuku- Nicholas Opiyo Muwanga kivumbi Maria Burnett
nde asked him to get assassins and he gave
him the contact of Abdu Nuru in Busia and leagues dismissed it as politicking. can go to Luzira and talk to the suspects
gave him Shs100 million to keep quiet. I told Ugandans but they chose to who have been victims of torture. This
But to get him to agree to confess these believe people like Felix Kulaigye who 
-
 Kulaigye, who sits on the same commit- When contacted, Jovah Kamateeka, the
could be given Shs 1 billion of that. tee and early this year following a visit to
-
 Nalufenya, criticised Kivumbi for being
 alarmist. When contacted by The Indepen- which visited the facility on May 19, was
 dent recently, he declined to comment. already compiling their report.

- Nicholas Opiyo, the Executive Director of
him to testify against "that man". In the last  Chapter Four; a human rights organisation,

neck and dipped his head into a drum full Kivumbi said that this time, he told the high-handed behavior of this regime and it
of water.
-
 tee before they visited the facility on May It has become the modus operandi of the
Musisi said, I was gasping for breath. I had 19, to visit the facility unannounced to pre- para-military units that Kayihura has cre-
vent a situation where police cleans up and 
 puts up a stage-managed show. to get worse because the more Museveni
one Minaana. Why dont you accept and He also says Nalufenya is not the only feels challenged the more high-handed his
 place where torture is happening. 
Torture is happening all over the from the previous regimes which he came
Entrenched impunity place, at Kisugu Police station, Kabalagala claiming to be liberating us from. It is the
Legislator Muwanga Kivumbi, a member Police station, Kireka at SIU Headquarters,
  
 Kivumbi said, And it doesnt require any 

about Nalufenya early this year but col- sophistication to get this information. You


12 May 26 - June 01 , 2017

 COVER STORY

Tortured mayor
and others
Police brutality cases that
shocked the nation

By Haggai Matsiko and Agather Atuhaire

The worst known victim of torture in the Nalufenya police dun-

geons so far is the LC-III chairman of Kamwenge town council,
Geoffrey Byamukama whose case shocked the country when
gruesome pictures, showing deep wounds on his kneecaps sur-
IDFHG7KHUHGRSHQZRXQGVORRNHGDVLIFKXQNVRIHVKKDG
been drilled and scooped out.

B
Nalufenya are part of a long and sad history
of torture in various locations in Uganda
over many years from Operation Wembley yamukama says he was have been arrested and are also

 tortured before he was detained in Nalufenya over allegations
Kireka. brought to Nalufenya. of torturing Byamukama.
Each time allegations emerge, police This is the position of But Musisi insists Byamukama
leadership commits to investigate, but each was tortured during interrogation
time, there is no accountability and torture handled his case; Herbert 

 Muhangi, the commandant of Flying Byamukama was taken for interroga-

security and political leadership are serious Squad, and Henry Mugumya and tion was in the wee hours of the morn-
about complying with Ugandas own consti- ACP James Kusemererwa, also give. ing. When they brought him back,
tution and human rights law, torture will be But in the murky narratives from it was clear he had been beaten but
investigated and perpetrators regardless of  he was still walking. But on the third
to sift truth from falsehood as people time, they brought him carrying him;

- speak under fear and duress, one he could not walk and spent that night
mented alleged cases of torture in Nalufenya Godfrey Musisi who says he was a crying in pain. On the second night,
detainee at Nalufenya at the time seeks he was already dripping pus. After
to follow them, given that suspects are often to contradict Byamukamas statement. he had spent three days crying in pain
held for long periods of time and then dif- Instead he says, when Byamukama and afraid that Byamukama might die,
the detainees banged on the door and
The prison authorities have also not and did not show any signs of torture. 
consistently been willing to grant us access Musisis version is the same as that their tormentors were reportedly tak-
of ASP Patrick Muramira, who was en aback by Byamukamas condition.
people who had been tortured in Nalufe- involved in Byamukamas arrest and They reportedly told the nurse that
 has since also been arrested. Muramira they needed to take him out because
security services operate opaquely and cover made his revelations to MPs who she could not handle his case. But she
up or ignore each others wrongdoing, it will visited Nalufenya to investigate the refused.
 torture. 
We arrested him through phone reportedly said, I have managed
Torture, she noted, has consistently been tracking. We introduced ourselves and
present in Uganda, and the problem has explained to him about the ongoing But soon enough, the nurse also
been an unwillingness to investigate and investigations about Kaweesi. We put realised that she could not manage
prosecute those torturing suspects. him in a van and brought him here and they rushed him to the nearby
The entrenched impunity for torture in  
-
Uganda appears to be a tacit acceptance of The Mayor was delivered here with-
 out any open wound or a scratch. He could die there. So police drove him to
had been accountability for example, for walked from the van to the counter. another hospital in Kampala and lastly
 - We can view the images on the CCTV to Nakasero Hospital where he was
banded the unit in 2011 there would be hospitalized and gruesome photos of
Muramira and ASP Fred the torture surfaced.
 

May 26 - June 01 , 2017 13

COVER STORY

learnt, was that he did not ing with anger and shock.
How can one explain the
means. electric shock, the knocking
Other tortured suspects out of teeth, the breaking of
- knee caps, the ironing of a per-
ziira, Higenyi Aramanzani sons body, the introduction of
Noordin, Mugerwa Yusuf, noxious (harmful) substances

Umar, Ahamada Senfuka, Has- Kadaga said.
san Tumusiime, Ibrahim Kissa, Torture is not an issue of the
Osman Mohamed Omarite, 
Magambo Hamidu, Abdu
  against humanity, it is a breach
and Sheik Musa Ntende. of the Prevention and Prohibi-

 tion of Torture Act, and the
 perpetrators must be arrested
interviewed the suspects on and charged in an open court.
instructions from Dr. Living- 
stone Ssewanyana, the Execu-
tive Director Foundation Kadaga also criticised

 police over the detention of


 the children of some of the
claim to have seen police -
chief Kayihura visits Nalufe- ira and wives Aisha Ampiire
nya. They also speak of death and Fatumah Bint Salim, were
of detainees under torture. arrested with their 12 children.
A detainee called Joshua Children under the age of
Kyambadde is also said to 12 have no legal capacity to
have lost a brother to torture.
Another suspect also said one
time he was tortured together She referred the Ministry of
- 
cated and died. Although The police to Section 244 of the
Independent could not con- Penal Code Act which quali-

several detainees have died at
the facility. ordered an investigation.
- As pressure mounted, the
fuzi wrote to the Uganda Minister of State for Internal

 Muwonge, Hassan Segawa, The Independent, the inten- 

requesting it to contact the  tion is not to prosecute them apologised for the torture of
- Kimuli, Senyonga Musa, suspects. He informed par-
bilitation of Torture Victims Semwanga and Ddamulira They deny them access to liament that the police have
 Swaleh. their people, doctors, and
victims and examine them At Kireka, he noted that for criminal trial in the courts
and compile medical reports. Ddamulira swaleh Kimuli has He explained that what of law.
 broken legs, Uthman Mugoya police is doing at Nalufenya President Yoweri Museveni
notes that the torture is not and Bawooli Mugoya, are today, they used to do at 

also being tortured. Kireka under the Violent police chief also ordered them
says torture still goes on the At Nalufenya, he noted, Crimes Crack Unit (VCCU). to stop the torture of suspects.
notorious `safe houses run Sulaiman Mudeya, Hussein But Kireka was easy to He said they could be tortur-
by the Chieftaincy of Military Kigumba and Kaliiri Yahaya ing the wrong people, forcing
Intelligence (CMI) and the are also being tortured. see what was happening. innocent suspects to admit
Violent Crimes Crack Unit  Nalufenya on the other guilt in order to be spared
(VCCU) at Kireka near Kam- of the worst torturers. At hand, is far from the pry- being tortured, and allowing
pala. Nalufenya, he said, they are ing eyes of the public. There the real criminal escape and
There are many, many Minaana and Kasiba. police can do anything. That commit more crimes because
 explains the notoriety you are resorting to torture shows that
the report reads in part, writes, they tell the inmates investigations are failing.
It is possible some could that even the President - The use of torture is unnec-
be maimed totally or even allowed them to kill. At CMI, 
 essary and wrong and must
he said, a key torturer is Ali the head of the army; CDF 
- Eriasa. Gen. David muhoozi, and the said, we shall get them using
  Police chief Gen. Kale Kayi- patient means of evidence but
Kamoga Sulaiti from Mbara- the notoriety at Nalufenya hura, to explain the torture. not through torture because
ra, Abbasi aka Alshabab from is recent. It is being used to In parliament, Speaker evidence through torture is
Kisenyi-Mbarara, Siraagi  -

14 May 26 - June 01 , 2017