The National Unity Platform (NUP) party President Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has visited his jailed bodyguard Edward Ssebuwufu alias Eddie Mutwe jailed at Masaka government prison after he charged and remanded over suspected to be trumped up charges.
Mutwe is in the same jail with three other bodyguards of Bobi Wine who include Achileo Kivumbi, Mugumya Gaddafi, and Wakabi Grace. Bobi Wine narrated how Eddie Mutwe has revealed the excruciating torture he was subjected to in eights days he was in the basement of President Yoweri Museveni’s son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also the Chief of Defence Forces -CDF.
Muhoozi last week shocked many Ugandans when he said Eddie Mutwe was his basement learning Runyankore and would not release him until he has mastered it. Eddie Mutwe narrated to Bobi Wine who was accompanied by the Leader of Opposition (LOP) Joel Ssenyonyi, the torture he was subjected to by Military men under the command of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Below is Bobi Wine’s narration of what Eddie Mutwe told him.
Eddie Mutwe is alive – that’s the only good news.
He is in great pain. He was brutalised in the most barbaric manner. He was electrocuted. He was subjected to water boarding, while they stuffed a piece of cloth in his mouth and tied it around his neck. They squeezed his private parts and hit them with a baton. They tied his arms with hand-cuffs and stepped on them, which ate into his skin. They put other cuffs on his legs. They flogged him four times every day for all the time he spent under incommunicado detention. The first torture session started early morning.
They gave him only one meal a day – posho and beans. When he asked for water, he was told to drink the water which he was sitting in – which he says was very dirty and contained traces of blood. There was a loud speaker in the room, which they switched on whenever torture sessions started, so that his loud cries could not be heard by anyone.
They forced him to put on Museveni’s t-shirt for the time he was there. They put him on gunpoint and commanded him to kneel down and swear allegiance to Museveni and his son while they recorded him. They stripped him naked and took his pictures. They cut off his beard violently while mocking him.
Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Keinerugaba, came on the third day and personally participated in the torture. He challenged Eddie to fight him if he thinks he is strong. A man on handcuffs!
One of the operatives came and asked him, “Amagara?” which means “How is life?” in Runyakore. Not knowing the response, he responded in Luganda, saying they hadn’t given him Amagara. They mocked him, asked how he could not know Runyakore and started beating him without mercy. He was asked several questions in Runyakore but didn’t know how to answer. They would laugh at his ignorance of the language and beat him. He wondered where they got the joy from. One of them spat on his face, and that hurt him deeply.
Most of the beatings targeted his feet, which swelled up. “It was like I had elephantiasis by the time I left that place.” He days. He is only healing now, but he is still unable to walk unaided. They injected him with three injections – the purpose of which he did not know. After all the torture, they would ask him to do press-ups and frog jumps.
He says he was detained in a basement of what looked like a good home and later on taken to another military facility. During interrogation, he would be blind folded and asked who we are to challenge Museveni! That is only part of the story! Since we went with his mother, wife, and his eight-month baby, he reached a point and broke down and didn’t want to say more.
He says that he has difficulty finding sleep. Every time he closes his eyes, he sees these monsters approaching him. Eddie Mutwe should not be in jail. He should be in a hospital. His colleagues too should not be in jail. They committed no offence.