Kakiri community still feeling aftershocks of ‘Drone’ frights 

A few dayss ago, Sarah Bakubulwa, a resident of Namagera village, Kakiri in Wakiso district, was sitting at the edge of her semi-permanent kitchen when she noticed strangers approach her home.

She almost took off in the direction of the garden if it weren’t for the timely coming from the house of her husband, her husband 63-year-old husband John Bosco Kisenyi and Abdu Karim Nsimbi, who happens to be the LC-I chairperson of the village. Bakubulwa’s fears stem from events of last year when the couple lost their -21-year-old son, Isaac Lubwama, in a case of deadly mistaken identity.

Lubwama was shot dead on September 3, 2022, by security agencies driving in the infamous ‘Drone’ vehicle. On that morning, Bakubulwa narrates, with tears rolling down her eyes, that she will never forget that day. Lubwama was shot in the head and abdomen with a bullet, going through one ear and exiting through another, according to Bakubulwa.

“They killed my son like a rat; they killed him for nothing. I heard an array of bullets and after a few minutes, they came to apologize that they were looking for someone else, Arafat and Abdu, but had mistakenly shot my son. I thought they had come back for us; that is why I was ready to take off when I saw you. What if it is another mistaken identity?” she said.

Nsimbi concurs with Bakubulwa and Kisenyi that Lubwama was one of the few youths in Namagera who was apolitical. His passion was playing football for the local area team and if not, he would be making bricks. At the time he got shot, he had just finished making a brick kiln. It was these very bricks that were used to make his grave.

“We lost our son; he was just 21 years old with a bright future ahead. He was my second child. He would be 22 years old this year. He was a very hardworking young man and I had so much hope in him. But they killed him and have not even had the courtesy to come back and check on us. Some people told us to go to the police and seek compensation, but for what use? These people don’t care. How do you shoot to kill someone you don’t even know how he looks like? Which kind of security is that?” said Kisenyi.

Lubwama was busy hilling up potatoes when screeches of a Drone (a vehicle infamously used by government security agencies to arrest suspects) sent shivers down their spines. Having witnessed the previous arrests, Kisenyi said that, by instinct, Lubwama and his fellow colleagues with whom he was digging took off. But after a few minutes, they came back since they hadn’t done anything wrong.

Kisenyi still cannot fathom why Lubwama was shot at because he says the security personnel had reportedly made it clear that they were looking for Arafat and Abdu, whom they pursued but failed to find. Lubwama’s younger siblings witnessed his murder and can narrate it as if it happened yesterday.

“Almost instantly, the security people regretted shooting dead the wrong person, but his younger siblings heard them say that the report should be that Isaac was also involved in rebel activities and was running away with a gun. I even wonder why they came to apologise after conjuring up such false reports. After my son, now I know many young people were wrongly arrested,” said Kisenyi.

NO ONE IS SAFE

Forty kilometres away from the city centre, Kakiri, a strong National Unity Platform (NUP) area since 2020, has become a ‘hunting’ area for security agencies, according to local residents.

Drones and mamba-armoured personnel carrier (APC) vehicles had reportedly become a common sight ahead of and after the 2021 elections in the area, whose outskirts are dotted with palatial homes and guesthouses—a clear sign that the elites are slowly assimilating into the area.

In fact, the sight of people jogging with wireless earbuds through the villages might seem strange, but only to strangers; the villagers seem to be so used to the sight. The number of SUVs with UB series number plates and the numerous merchandise vehicles all point to an active village, not just in politics but in business.

Although Rosemary Namukasa’s son is not dead, she says the traumatic torture she has suffered since December 27, 2021, when her 17-year-old son Issa Kizito got arrested in Kasengejje is almost similar to encountering the death of a dear one. According to her, security first arrested Kizito’s older brother, 27-year-old Lawrence Kavulu.

“Kavulu was tortured so badly inside that drone vehicle,” she says. “They actually spared me some of the other gruesome tortures they subjected my son to, but even what they narrated to me, no mother should ever hear that their child was subjected to,” she told TheObserver.

“There were six dark, angry men in the drone with every torture tool you can think of. They really tortured my Kavulu and he had no option but to lead them to Kizito. They claimed that my son had a gun. And for one month and two weeks, we didn’t know exactly where they had taken him. We learned later that he was detained at a safe house in Bukoto and when they brought him to court in Makindye, he had a black eye, indicating torture,” she said.

She still visits Kizito at Kigo prison, but says that since she stopped working, the financial implications of such visits have started to overwhelm her. She says it’s true her son was a strong NUP and Kyagulanyi supporter, but that should be no reason for torture because everyone is free to make their choice.

“I quit working in the market because it was Kizito who used to help go around and shop the products that I used to sell in the market. Now I just dig, but the ends don’t meet. For me, I don’t want anything from this government—not compensation, nothing. I only want my son to be freed,” she added.

Some locals even suspect that the state staged an armed robbery so it could justify the mass arrests in Namagera, Gobero and Lukoma. Ever since the mass arrests, Kakiri has since gone quiet, at least politically.

“There is nothing here. There is no more politics in these areas; the arrests sent fears among the youths and parents. No parent wants to see their child involved in politics and then get arrested,” said Patrick Lutwama.

HUNT FOR BLOGGERS

James Ssuuna, an outspoken NUP blogger and supporter, says they have since abandoned staying in their homes for fear of arrests, especially since arrests sometimes come with unclear consequences, including death. He has not been seen home for months and his mother said that although she has been spared some of the details, she very well knows that her son is not enjoying the utmost freedoms.

She urged him to return home, saying the political atmosphere has since calmed down. Ssuuna says the arrests first send fears among family members, who always ask the activists to abandon the struggle so they can be spared further arrests or even death.

“They keep saying we’re involved in propaganda, but if it is propaganda, it’s not only the NUP that is involved; even government people like Hudu Hussein are involved in propaganda, so why should it be NUP supporters who get arrested for it?” he said.

On whether some are deliberately inciting security to arrest them so they can get easy visas abroad, as some regime apologists have suggested, Ssuuna said no one desires to leave their country to go and ‘suffer’ abroad when they can live comfortably here.

“You know what’s funny is how these people torture us and when we seek asylum elsewhere, they again blame us for it. But we don’t do it because we want to; those who do it do it because they have no option,” he added.

In an interview last week, NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya told The Observer; “I must say that in this country, when you are arrested, you don’t know how it will end. I was preparing my mind for whatever will happen because you know in this country, these guys could take you and you think you will spend hours and end up spending years. When you are in this situation, you think about Ssewanyana and Ssegirinya, you think about the Olivia Lutaayas and you have to mentally prepare yourself for whatever will come.”

Another blogger, Motiv Kassaga, who was recently arrested and released without charge after his posts against the speaker of parliament, Anita Among, said the arrests will not make them relent in the push for justice and fairness.