Beatrice Smith

[Ensi Egumire Baasi 🥹 @NiwaRodgers]

Sometimes I sit down and ask myself: what kind of metal was used to make Dr. Kizza Besigye?

Here is a man who is financially secure, with investments, highly educated, a retired military officer, and married to an internationally respected wife. He has a family and every reason to choose a quiet life, yet he has never surrendered or stopped fighting for what he believes is the liberation of Uganda.

From the day he declared that he would challenge his former friend for the presidency in 2001, he has faced countless political battles. He has survived death threats, rape allegations, repeated arrests, the loss of family members, and the loss of close friends in the struggle. Through it all, he has never given up.

Truth be told, I even fear his level of resilience. What many people dismissed as “just another arrest” has, over nearly two years, turned into a life-threatening ordeal. Yet every time he appears before a judge, he still carries himself with remarkable courage. Looking at his actions, one gets the impression that he would rather lose his life than surrender his principles.

Whether one agrees with his politics or not, very few people could endure what Dr. Besigye has endured. Many people, when faced with such pressure, would plead guilty for a lighter sentence or negotiate with those responsible for their arrest. He has chosen a different path.

Personally, I know I would have surrendered long ago.

We may never see another Besigye in our lifetime. People can debate his politics, but his endurance, conviction and willingness to sacrifice for what he believes are qualities that are undeniably rare. Even at his age, he continues to shake the most powerful tables

May God keep you alive to witness the fulfillment of everything you believe in. May your faith, hope and perseverance be rewarded. Amen.

[Martita @BarbetsDale]

Humiliating, torturing innocent citizens? @JudiciaryUG !

[Samwise Gamgee @Sambannz]

Our religious leaders in times when Ugandans need them the most...

[BOBI WINE @HEBobiwine]

It turns out that journalist and media personality @TimKalyegira, who has been missing, was actually abducted, held incommunicado, and is now being arraigned for charging! Simply because he's been outspoken about Museveni and his son's crimes. We got to this point because everyone thought that someone else would fix it. Hopefully everyone now realises the collective danger and the collective duty. Only then shall we be free.

[Bruce Kyerere,SC. @BruceKyerere]

Brazen acts of terror being visited on Ugandans by armed military men in uniform abducting people in enforced disappearances, and all the while the State @GovUganda and the leadership of the Country under @KagutaMuseveni @StateHouseUg are all quiet about these things ….. 🤔

[Larry Madowo @LarryMadowo]

BREAKING: The son of Uganda’s president - and military chief - Muhoozi Kainerugaba has closed Nation Media Group outlets NTV, Spark TV and Daily Monitor and barricaded their offices, the company says

[Anne Mugisha @annemugisha65]

Enough is Enough, Leave Matembe Alone!

[Anne Mugisha @annemugisha65]

When you ask them to act: Mbu why don’t you come and lead? When you try to lead: Mbu you old activist trying to remain relevant! When you tell them to lead: Mbu why don’t you come back instead of yapping from abroad? 🤣🤣🤣 Stop avoiding your responsibility by pointing to my ‘weaknesses’. My generation may not have delivered the change we sought but we tried and we brought the fight this far. Now stop yapping and pick up the mantle. Here are 198 ways in which you can act. Leave the yapping to us elderly, self-exiled oldies. Please 🙏🏾

https://t.co/62Be6HXS6v

[SSEKABIRA PATRICK @PSSEKABIR]

Hon. Miria Matembe has responded after reports that CDF Mu7 52 son threatened to arrest her.

[Winnie Byanyima @Winnie_Byanyima]

President @KagutaMuseveni, Sam Mugumya's mother is pleading for her son. Ten long months ago, he was abducted in broad daylight in Mbarara by security agents and has disappeared without a trace. If he is suspected of any offence, order that Sam is produced before a court of law, not held illegally by your army.

I was standing next to you when you promised Ugandans an end to disappearances, abuse by security forces, and extrajudicial killings. The test of that promise is now.
Return Sam to his family. End this mother's agony. #FreeSamMugumya
@AgoraCFR

[Agora Discourse @AgoraCFR]

Sam Mugumya's mother says she is in so much pain as a parent, who doesn't know the whereabouts of her son. What is most troubling her heart is not knowing whether her son is alive or dead.

It is now day 297 since @SamMugumya was abducted.

#FreeUganda

[KIIZA ERON @kiizaeron]

By Dr.Olive (Wednesday, June 17, 2026)

Today I participated in what strikes me as bizarre and deeply concerning drama.

Lord Mayor Emeritus Erias Lukwago was moved from a torture chamber in the CDF’s basement to Kira Police.

It would seem that the Police did not protest being handed a man that the country knew to have been abducted.

Instead of arresting the people who abducted him, they bundled him into one of their cars, and drove him to Makindye Magistrate's Court under tight security.

I suppose it is unthinkable for the police to question the manner of his capture, and the horrific and humiliating treatment to which he was subjected, most of which information is in the public domain, courtesy of the culprit.

But let us get to the court session itself.

Security Gulugulu.

Cutting through Kampala afternoon traffic at no notice to get to Makindye was the easy part.

Getting through security to access court was something else.

I finally managed to squeeze into the courtroom to find that the accused had already been charged.
A frail looking Lukwago stood in the dock.

The defence lawyer told court he had not been given his client's charge sheet.
The prosecution team said they did not have it.
Yet.

But charges had been read.

The defence lawyer went into a lengthy application for bail.

He mentioned that when the Police surgeon took Lukwago's blood pressure in Kira, it was 200/100.

I started to panic.

Nobody else looked worried.

The lawyer said his client was then given a small tablet to place under his tongue. 

All this detail in open court.
I think to impress it upon the judge and prosecution that the man in the dock was seriously unwell.

I know about the tablet under the tongue.

It was very worrisome that we were all there, in a small crowded courtroom with no standing space and little air movement, in the presence of a man that should have been lying in a hospital bed.

But no, we were not done.

The lawyer described Lukwago’s medical ailments, and the elaborate conditions necessary to keep him well.

He then described the profile of the man himself.

There was not a person in that courtroom who was unaware of the larger-than-life status of the man who had until a couple of months ago been Lord Mayor for Kampala City.

Then he presented three sureties.

Two current members of parliament, with their national and Parliament IDs, and a doctor who was an MP in the last parliament.

All three are well known and respected members in society.

Then the Senior State Attorney representing the state stood up.

She insisted that the 2 members of parliament present letters of introduction from their village LC chairpersons!
Members of Parliament, carrying their parliamentary IDs.
Easily verifiable in 60 seconds by checking online – were required to present letters from their villages.

Then she said prosecution needed a week to verify the information presented concerning Hon. Lukwago’s medical condition, ‘and other matters of the law’.

Hon. Sseggona was at pains to explain – as one would explain to a dull 8-year old – that Lukwago’s condition was really critical, and that this was, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

If prosecution heard and internalized that, they did not show it.

They insisted that the man that survived torture for 48 hours, and whose last measured blood pressure constituted a medical emergency, be sent to prison on remand for a week, while they read through his medical records.

A compromise of sorts was reached at the magistrate’s intervention.
The week was brought down to four days.
In prison.

The man who was abducted and brutalized beyond description is now in prison.

The man who abducted him, brutalized him, and gleefully kept the world informed of the torture is a free man.

The Chief Justice heard nothing, saw nothing, knows nothing. Courts are running. Lawyers are appearing before judges and submitting arguments.

We are back home.

[Anne Mugisha @annemugisha65]

We saw it happen, gasped in disbelief as it unfolded on our X feeds. We cannot unsee it! But we can tuck it away in that section of our conscience where we dump things we are powerless to change. The smell of powerlessness hangs over the whole country like the stench of a coward’s sweat. We dare not look at each other in the eye to see a reflection of our fear staring back at us. Instead we lower our gaze and return to daily chores.
If KB and Obeid have survived in Luzira for 579 days, Omuloodi will survive too. His clients will teach him how to survive there.
And the rest of us? We lie low and monitor our X feeds wondering who the next victim will be, praying it is not us or someone dear to us. We have been reduced to spectators in a political arena where our tormentors pretend to need us every five years, to participate in fake elections that legitimize them. They are already guiding us on who will be on the next ballot and how we are expected to vote if we are to avoid the fate of those other guys in Luzira.

And so as we walk around sullen, stunned into quiet submission.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

We are called to reread the Gospel in today’s world, exchanging the gifts of our respective cultures and the fruits that Christ's message has produced in them. One of these fruits is precisely the dialogue between peoples, the encounter in a spirit of fraternity, which enables us to discover and appreciate one another’s values. This path is not easy, but requires goodwill and God’s help. Yet, it is the path that leads to the civilization of love. #GeneralAudience

[Samwise Gamgee @Sambannz]

"I don't even know who told them that they are the 1st family.
So, who is the 2nd & 3rd family?"~Ssemujju Nganda

"One family dominating our lives and taking all the decisions"

Goes ahead to mention ministers in the new cabinet who are relatives to the M7 family

[Yuliana Namubiru ( SHE of Buddu) @YN_BUDDU]

ONLY the Almighty decides a man's end. Not that inbred, man-boobed, unhinged fiend with Daddy issues Muhoozi Kainewaragi

@Uganda_must_be_safe_4_ALL

[mbale's finest🇺🇬 @mbales_finest]

If this appears on your timeline, just repost🙏

#FreeEriasLukwago

[Samwise Gamgee @Sambannz]

Yo favorite men of "God" everytime Ugandans are facing injustice..

[Egesa Ronald Leonard @regesa]

The challenges at hand know not opposition nor NRM. We should call upon all decent Ugandans to speak out against misrule.

I am wondering why the leadership of Parliament, Judiciary, Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, National Consultative Forum of Political Parties and the Senior Counsel Bar are not calling press conference after another to speak up against misplaced role of the military in our politics and administration of justice.

By the way, where is the Female Lawyers Network, Christian Lawyers, Catholic Lawyers Network, Network of Public Interest Lawyers and all manner of lawyers groups that were quick to issue press statements against @isaacssemakadde for calling Justice Abodo an obscene word? Are you not seeing that rule of law champion Erias Lukwago is under illegal military detention? Did you target Ssemakadde because you thought he was weaker than MK? Do you feel the pain of Lukwago and his wife?

We are surrounded by a bunch of English speaking hypocrites.

Guys, style up. Get on record and tell us your stand. Uganda will never solve the Governance problem without complete DEMILITARISATION of our politics and administration of justice.

[Nicholas Opiyo (Pronouns He/Him) @nickopiyo]

We’ll not reshare the torture images of @EriasLukwago, as to do so would be to further the interest of the folks carrying out the unlawful actions and to perpetuate his undignified and humiliating treatment.

We’ll say, though, that such actions are a daylight manifestation of the state of our country, captive to the shallow interest of a small clique to whom the law is a suggestion, rather than a command.

You humiliate the man, torture him, but you’ll never match the power of his ideas; the high moral grounds on which he stands will be a summit you will only glance from afar.

We’d demand that he be set free or taken to court through a lawful process if he has committed any crime, but i doubt you’ll heed to such calls. It is out of your grapes. So we will only ask that when you have satisfied your cheap desires, leave him alive to return to his family, cause, and country. He’ll meet and vanquish you in the arena of ideas, law, and morality.