Court orders Security Operatives to unconditionally Release Detained Author.

In Summary
  • Author was expected in court on Tuesday but was not brought in.
  • His  lawyer says he is in bad shape,  been tortured , urinating and vomiting blood.
  • Kakwenza is accused of ridiculing  Lt.Gen.Muhoozi Kainerugaba as a drunkard, and  over weight .
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija
Image: Courtesy Photo

The Makindye Court grade one  Magistrate Irene Nambatya  has ordered security operatives to unconditionally release    Ugandan Author Rukirabashaija Kakwenza  who was incarcerated for allegedly ridiculing Uganda's first son.

This is after his lawyers led by  Eron Kiiza filed an application for his immediate unconditional release after their client spending a week in incommunicado.

According to lawyer Kiiza, their client was supposed to be produced in court today but he has not yet been produced before Buganda road court, where his case file on offensive communication was brought  for plea taking.

He adds that police is fearing to produce his client in court because he has been tortured and is currently urinating and vomiting blood.

Kiiza says their client is being held in  unknown  location since the 28th of December when he was violently arrested by police from his home in Iganga .

He added Kakwenza   is in need of urgent medical attention as a result of being tortured.

On Monday , Security operatives   drove  him back  to  Iganga district to search his home without notifying his lawyers first. Lawyer Eron Kiiza described the said search as illegal and unconstitutional.

" They just ambushed the family, after the wife had departed for Kampala since we were expecting him to be produced before Buganda road court today.He is tortured, all his clothes are bloodstained, very frail and in need to urgent medical attention" he said

He  appealed to security to release his client immediately to his family so that he can get the immediate medical attention needed.

Kakwenza  committed  the crime of  offensive communication after he allegedly published comments criticizing  President Museveni's  son .

The Author is said to have ridiculed Lt.Gen.Muhoozi Kainerugaba as a drunkard, over weight and a person who does not take care of himself.

Following his arrest, Muhoozi took to social media to warn other people from allegedly abusing him saying they will be dealt with the same way.He stated that although Uganda has a right to freedom of speech,  that freedom should be limited, but has since taken down his tweet.

This is not the first tine that the novelist is being arrested for his work and in 2020, he was arrested by security after he published  books entitled Banana Republic and the Greedy Barbarian that all ridiculed the ruling Government highlighting the high levels of corruption.