Stanley Ndawula, editor and founder of The Investigator news website, remains missing and work colleagues maintain he was kidnapped by uniformed operatives who forcefully dragged him to a waiting pick up similar to those regularly used by one of the security agencies. Robert Ndawula, a manager at the same publication, says the investigative media personality who specializes on reporting crime and security agencies was picked from Yaya Lounge in Bukoto. And tragically, all this happened at night on Friday and (quite anomalously) the men never disclosed their identities contrary to the directive of IGP Okoth Ochola who recently urged citizens to resist arrest by operatives that aren’t comfortable identifying themselves and the organizations they represent. Spy Uganda’s Andrew Irumba, a renowned media rights activist who coordinates newly formed Independent Online Journalists Association Uganda (INDOPA-U) to which Stanley Ndawula subscribes, suspects the arrest could have been aimed at forestalling a deadly investigative story the Kooki-hailing journalist was preparing to unleash in the coming days regarding wanton acts of torture that continues to be occasioned at one of the safe houses manned by Internal Security Organization (ISO). Irumba says Stanley Ndawula had shared with colleagues some of the very frightening images of some of the victims and assured them he intended to publish them soon. Renowned opinion writer Fred Daka Kamwada, a longtime acquaintance, says he recently sat down with Stanley Ndawula and talked over matters relating to his personal security, an encounter during which he advised him to consider leaving the country for a safer destination abroad. “But he simply brushed me off as a coward…He reaffirmed that God is his protector. I hope this goes well for my brother,” Kamwada says of Stanley Ndawula whose father is a renowned Church of Uganda minister. Human Rights for Journalists Network coordinator Robert Sempala, a leading crusader for scribes’ rights, too has been out rallying the international opinion against Stanley Ndawula’s kidnapers while calling for his immediate release. One thing is certain: the kidnap risks making worse an already bad human rights record the Kampala regime has endured for years as one of the increasingly unsafe places to be a journalist. The following sample extracts demonstrate the widespread online outrage and resultant condemnation the Ugandan government (and more so ISO) is continuing to endure regarding Ndawula’s continued confinement and whereabouts over which the police publicist Luke Owesigyire and ISO Director General Frank Bagyenda Kaka have so far denied responsibility and knowledge. The same journalist was late last year arrested and dramatically charged with publishing news that amounted to being libelous and disturbing the peace of ex-IGP Gen Kale Kayihura contrary to the relevant provisions of the Penal Code Act and the Computer Misuse Act.
