By Aggrey Baba
The Katonga-road-based opposition People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) has made an unexpected appeal to Water and Environment Minister Kahinda Otafiire, saying the time has come for them to unite against enforced disappearance of ugandans after fresh claims emerged that Otafiire’s missing brother could be held in the same safe house as missing PFF activist and Personal Assistant to Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Sam Mugumya.
While addressing the public on Monday at the party headquarters, PFF chairperson and acting president Michael Lulume Bayiga said the party was prepared to work with Otafiire in pursuing the truth after recent allegations circulated claiming the minister’s missing brother and Mugumya were allegedly being held in the same facility in Kasenyi, claims which have not been independently verified.
Bayiga’s statement came just days after a disturbing video dominated the social media, showing an emaciated man believed to be Mugumya, reigniting debate over the activist’s disappearance, with PFF insisting it proves their colleague is still alive despite spending nearly a year missing, yet authorities have previously denied knowledge of his whereabouts.
“Gen. Otafiire and ourselves are now in the same boat,” Bayiga declared.
“The difference is that he serves in a government we accuse of oppressing people while we are outside it. But I don’t believe he would want to lose his brother, just as we don’t want to lose ours. We are willing to work together,” Lulume said.
The apeal marked a rare occasion as PFF publicly extended an olive branch to a senior Museveni minister over what it described as a shared human tragedy rather than political differences.
Bayiga said the latest footage of Mugumya had left party leaders relieved that their colleague appeared to still be alive, even though he looked frail and visibly weakened.
“After about a year, we have seen our comrade alive. He is not dead. He is suffering, emaciated and in pain. We thank the courageous person who recorded that video and let the world know what is happening.”
Mugumya, a longtime opposition activist who previously spent years imprisoned in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before returning to Uganda, only to disappear again in August last year, after reportedly being picked up by armed forces from a hotel in Mbarara. Since then, PFF, family members and rights activists have repeatedly demanded that security agencies produce him in court, but the State and security agencies have consistently denied holding him.
Bayiga recalled that during habeas corpus proceedings, every state institution named in court denied knowing Mugumya’s whereabouts.
“Today, the whole world has seen him. Those who denied knowledge now know.”
He appealed directly to President YK Museveni, addressing him as ‘Jajja’ and Commander-in-Chief, saying it was shameful for a Ugandan to remain in such conditions.
“If Sam Mugumya is under the forces you command, then this should pain you as a grandfather and as President,” Lulume added. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
