Uganda military chief claims to hold opposition aide 'in his basement'

The son of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, Major General Muhoozi Kainerugaba attends a ceremony in which he was promoted from Brigadier to Major General at the country's military headquarters in Kampala on May 25, 2016. [AFP] Uganda's military chief claimed he had abducted the bodyguard of main opposition leader Bobi Wine and was torturing him "in his basement", days after his party said he went missing. Uganda has faced international condemnation over the abduction of opposition figures, most recently targeting another veteran leader Kizza Besigye, who was seized in Kenya last year and forcibly returned to face treason charges. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is head of the army but also son and heir-apparent of the long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni, posted on X late Thursday that Wine's bodyguard, Eddie Mutwe, had been captured "like a grasshopper". "He is in my basement... You are next," Kainerugaba, known for his notorious posts on X, responded to Wine after he posted about Mutwe's "abduction". Wine, a former singer whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has become the leading opponent to Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986. "The abduction of Eddie Mutwe and many others by the military is a reminder to the world as to how law and order has broken down in Uganda," Wine told AFP on Friday. "For Muhoozi to confirm the abduction and illegal detention of Eddie Mutwe and sharing his photos half naked signals to the level of impunity the rogue regime has reached," he added. Uganda is set to hold elections in January with Museveni looking to extend his 40-year rule. Violently abducted The last election in 2021 was marred by widespread reports of irregularities and severe violence from the security forces, which Museveni blamed on "indiscipline" and "laziness". The US-based Holocaust Memorial Museum recently warned of possible "mass atrocities" around the 2026 election. On April 27, Wine's party, the National Unity Platform, said Mutwe was "violently abducted" by armed men wearing uniforms associated with the Special Forces Command, an elite unit of Uganda's army. Kainerugaba also alluded to Mutwe being tortured, saying he had beaten him, shaved his head and "I still have to castrate him". "If they keep on provoking us, we shall discipline them even more," he said. A police spokesman told AFP he had not been briefed on Mutwe's case. Earlier this year, the military chief threatened to behead Wine and they have sparred repeatedly online. Kainerugaba is notorious for his unfiltered posts on X that have occasionally drawn Uganda into diplomatic spats. In 2022, Museveni was forced to apologise for posts that appeared to threaten an invasion of Kenya.

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Uganda military chief claims to hold opposition aide 'in his basement'

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