By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Uganda’s army chief on Monday boasted of plans to inflict “hurt and pain” on an opposition lawyer who he arrested and detained, while he was preparing to file a legal summons against the top military official.
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of long-term President Yoweri Museveni, posted a photo of Erias Lukwago, an opposition politician and lawyer on X, held by military personnel.
“I’m proud of ALL the hurt and pain I will inflict on the CRIMINAL LUKWAGO!” Kainerugaba posted to his X account with 1.3 million followers.
“He keeps saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’. It won’t help him now,” he wrote, attaching the photo of Lukwago, wearing a white t-shirt.
Another photo shows a man dressed identically, against the same background of a tiled wall, with his face covered in a cloth and hands together as if in supplication.
In an earlier post on X, Kainerugaba said he had “captured a fool and taken him to the basement”, but did not identify him as Lukwago.
He wrote in another post: “he summoned me?? How do you DARE to utter those words”, adding: “this fool will learn the lesson”.
Lukwago represents Kizza Besigye in the court, one of Museveni’s fierce critics, who has been in detention facing trial since his abduction from Kenya in 2024.
Besigye is yet to be tried before a civil court, as his family accuses Ugandan state of torturing him.
Lukwago was preparing to serve court documents summoning Kainerugaba, who has continued to show interest in succeeding his father.
Early Monday morning, a relative of Lukwago told AFP that “military personnel jumped over the gate and violently bundled him into the van and drove away”.
“They didn’t tell us where they’re taking him,” he said.
The army chief has a reputation of making provocative online posts, and has been accused of abducting figures close to the opposition previously.
“This is Amin’s regime regenerated through Muhoozi,” Lukwago’s wife Zawedde Lubwama Lukwago told journalists, a reference to brutal dictator Idi Amin who ruled Uganda in the 1970s.
“My husband is a respected lawyer who has not committed any crime,” she said.
Rights activist Agather Atuhaire said the incident showed the “impunity” enjoyed by the authorities.
“Now we have a government that not only breaks the law, commits atrocities like those, but also gloats over them, boasts of committing them,” she said.
“In other areas where there’s… abuse of the law or anything, at least people hide it, because they know that it’s wrong or because they know that there can be consequences.”
