By Mulengera Reporters
Former Ethics & Integrity Dr. Miria Matembe says she is fearful that remanded Civil Society icon Sarah Bireete might be sexually assaulted and raped while in government detention.
At a solidarity news conference, her and other civil society leaders held at Bireete’s NGO offices in Ntinda on Friday, Dr. Matembe claimed there is a high likelihood of this happening to jailed activist (Bireete) because sex molestation has gradually been weaponized in Uganda as a tool to be used to torment and subdue female notorious critics of the regime once one gets arrested.
Matembe, a mother figure to many young women seeking to establish themselves in the Ugandan public space, claimed to have been approached by many such young women activists who confide in her claiming to have been raped and generally sexually assaulted while in government detention.
“I’m very worried and it’s my prayer that this doesn’t end up happening to Sarah,” said Matembe at the Friday news conference where she was flanked by Andrew Karamagi, Godbar Tumushabe, the Uganda Law Society Vice President Anthony Asiimwe and others.
Likening what is happening in Uganda to the political harassment and hunting down of political opponents during Amin’s time, Dr. Matembe called on her old friend and former boss President Museveni to look himself in the mirror and begin realizing that this country deserves much better.
Other NGO leaders present branded the Bireete predicament political persecution and called on the clergy to begin speaking out because it’s increasingly becoming clear that neutrality between right and wrong is simply the most unsustainable option to choose.
Tumushabe and Asiimwe spoke about a pipeline of political persecution, which the regime has carefully put in place while pretending to be operating under the law.
Making reference to what Dr. Kizza Besigye, Obed Lutale, Waiswa Mufumbiro and other NUP leaders have endured in the past so many months, Tumushabe and Asiimwe described the impugned ‘persecution pipeline’ as one comprising of Uganda Police Force (which arrests), ODPP (which places the formal charges), the Courts (which remands people after denying them bail) and the Uganda Prisons Service, which does the detaining of the targeted activists.
It was asserted that this isn’t merely about Bireete, Besigye and others who were arrested before but the entire Ugandan population of 46m people because no one can claim to be safe anymore.
Asiimwe, the ULS Vice President, went as far as predicting that one of these days, the country might wake up to breaking news that Dr. Miria Matembe has also been picked up from her Luzira home and detained at a Police Station to avenge the courage with which she has stepped forward to lead others in demanding justice for Sarah Bireete. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
