Happy to share that my latest interview with @boldjourneymag has just been published. In this piece, I reflect on the defining wounds, lessons, and values that have shaped my journey as a human rights advocate, refugee and community organizer.
Every story we share is an opportunity to heal, to connect, and to build bridges for others who may feel unseen.
Read the full article here:
https://t.co/pA6BoP3zTk
RUTO OPENED THE DOOR: THE BESIGYE ABDUCTION KENYA CONFESSED
On Wednesday, @WilliamsRuto stood before the United Nations and told the world that international law must not be "disregarded when convenient."
Mr President, we remember when it was convenient.
16 November 2024. Riverside Drive, Nairobi. Dr. Kizza Besigye stepped into a lift a free man. By nightfall he was in a Kenyan-plated vehicle racing through the dark to Malaba, and then to a military cell in Makindye. There was no request, no warrant and no Kenyan judge. It was an abduction, carried out in your capital, on your roads, through your gazetted border post.
First your government denied it. Then Kampala contradicted you on national television. Then your own Foreign Minister confessed: "Kenya cooperated with the Ugandan authorities." He called it the national interest.
The national interest is not a warrant. Friendship between governments is not an extradition treaty.
In the treason trial, Orlando, the prosecution's own witness now testifies that Kenyan police rented the Nairobi room and planted the guns. Kampala wrote the charge; Nairobi supplied the room, the road and the silence.
When Kenyans marched and asked, you arrested them. Julius Kamau, Collins Otieno, Julius Haruda Migori and Dickson Muli are charged with "obstructing traffic." Boniface Mulinge Muteti, the man who wrote the petitions, texted that he had been arrested. Then his phone went dead. His family cannot find him.
In Uganda, Gen. Muhoozi boasts:"Our friend H.E. Ruto will not allow that nonsense." Six days later, your police broke up the march.
Today Dr. Besigye has been held for 678 days. He is seventy. He collapsed in the dock.
A door does not open itself, Mr President. Someone held it. Either you authorised the handover, or you have ratified it by silence.
Produce Mulinge Muteti alive. Drop the charges. Publish the investigation. Use your standing to free Dr. Besigye.
Until then, the door on Riverside Drive is yours to account for.
#FreeBesigye #WhereIsMulinge #RutoMustAnswer #RiversideDrive #EndAbductions
Last night was all about queer joy. There is something powerful about coming together simply to celebrate who we are, connect, laugh, dance and be in community. And doing it at the historic Stonewall Inn made the evening even more special.๐ณ๏ธโ๐
Youโre such a disgrace!
Making such a comment clearly exhibit the longstanding homophobia, stigma and discrimination towards the LGBTQ+ community in Uganda, by your corrupt government ๐ฎ
While appearing on a panel discussion in a side event on the sidelines of the ongoing UNGA in New York, a moderator asked me how we ensure homosexuals in Uganda are not discriminated while accessing healthcare since we have a law on LGBTQIA. I assured the audience, which was largely white, that our law just confirms African belief, tradition, custom, ethos and culture; that homosexuality is not African. It is just s learnt behaviour, whchi we detest. That notwithstanding, Uganda does not discriminate homosexuals while receiving all kinds of services including health care. Uganda uses the principle of Jesus; He hated sin but embraced sinners.
Yesterday, I joined the UN LGBTI Core Group meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, under the theme โChampioning Diversity in Times of Adversity: Standing Up for LGBTI Persons.
For someone who has spent years advocating for LGBTQ+ people, I never take for granted the opportunity to bring our experiences and realities into global conversations on human rights.๐ณ๏ธโ๐
HIRED BY THE STATE. STAGED WITH THE KENYAN POLICE. EXPOSED BY HIS OWN MOUTH.
Yesterday, the State recalled its โstarโ witness, Andrew Wilson alias "Orlando", to repair the damage he did on Tuesday, when he told the Court that the Kenyan Police planted the pistols at Riverside Apartments.
The repair failed spectacularly. Answering the Chief State Attorney's own questions, Orlando told the Court that he was working for the Government of Uganda while secretly gathering information on Dr Besigye, and that the Nairobi meeting of 16 November 2024 was a planned sting operation.
On Tuesday, the witness told us who planted the guns. On Thursday, the prosecution told us who hired the witness.
IMAGINE. A foreign national, handled by CMI, paid US$5,000, posing as a fake financier of a fake company, dangling US$5 million, "pineapples" and military training before the leading opponent of the government that hired him, with cameras hidden in a power bank, a wall socket and a necklace. That is not an investigator. That is a mercenary of CMI.
And the "crime scene"? โก๏ธ He came from Entebbe and was handed to Kenyan security officers at the border. โก๏ธ The pistols and counterfeit currency were in the room about 30 minutes before Hajji Lutale arrived. โก๏ธ He unloaded the pistols himself. โก๏ธ He lured the men in, escaped during the raid, and came back to sleep in the same apartment.
The State's star witness slept at the scene of the crime he claims he witnessed.
The recorders? First the Kenyan Police gave them to him. Now one came from a coat and the other from a flower pot. A chain of custody that begins in a flower pot is no chain at all.
When the questions got too close, Orlando/@artfulgypzy declared things "classified". A witness has no power to classify anything.
All this in the absence of Dr Besigye, who collapsed in court, is ill and has not returned, after some 671 days in custody since his abduction in Nairobi, and after his defence team was deported, prosecuted or driven from the case.
Uganda supplied the tasking, the money and the narrative. Kenya supplied the stage, the raid and the handover. A government that must hire a foreign operative to invent a plot has no plot. A witness who sleeps at the scene he helped stage is not a witness; he is part of the set.
The State set out to prove a conspiracy against Uganda. Its own witness has proved the conspiracy against Dr Besigye. This case must end. The DPP must discontinue it under Article 120(3)(d). Failing that, the High Court must stay it as an abuse of process.
Free Dr Kizza Besigye. Free all political prisoners.
#FreeBesigye #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners #OrlandoConfessed #Uganda #Kenya #RuleOfLaw