Ever since his arrest on June 15 and subsequent charging and remanding to Murchison Bay prison at Luzira, former Kampala lord mayor and president of the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), Erias Lukwago, has spent all those days in the prison hospital.
Speaking to The Observer at Luzira prison, Lukwago said he has spent all the time there in the hospital as it is the only place that can somehow manage his delicate health conditions.
“I have got five chronic diseases that need special care, which obviously I cannot get from the hospital here. But as an improvisation, I have been sleeping in the hospital all the time I have been here, because I need a special orthopaedic bed which you cannot get from the prison cells,” the visibly sick Lukwago said.
According to a report from Mulago national specialised hospital where he was sent for treatment days after his abduction and subsequent charging, Lukwago should return to India for a spinal review.
“Lukwago should have a spinal review by his primary spine surgeons in India to re-evaluate him for the persistent upper limb radiculitis. We were unable to repeat his MRI investigations because we were uncertain of the compatibility of the implants (artificial disc) that were used for his primary spine surgery and MRI scans available,” the report signed by Dr Rosemary Byanyima, the executive director of Mulago hospital, reads in part.
The report also listed five health conditions that Lukwago is currently grappling with, including hypertension, unresolved postCovid-19 lung complex with residual mild cylindrical bronchiectasis, persistent Anosmia, Gerd Aerophagia Belching, and mild hiatus hernia, among others.
Lukwago said these diseases are ordinarily hard to live with and manage; prison worsens them.
“I need a special diet because of the problem with my Gerd. That special diet is not available here. Of course, people bring me all kinds of foods, but you know the prison conditions cannot allow you to manage your diet. Supper is served at 2 pm; so, by the time you eat the food, it is already cold. This has been a very big challenge for me,” Lukwago said.
He added that he has also got a challenge with sleeping because of the competing interests of two diseases he is grappling with.
“Because of the Gerd issue, I’m supposed to sleep on a raised bed so that the food I have eaten doesn’t come back, but because of the issues of the spine, I’m supposed to sleep on a flat, hard surface,” Lukwago said.
RECALLING ABDUCTION
On the morning of Monday June 15, armed men, [maybe even women] some dressed in UPDF uniforms and others in plain clothes, invaded Lukwago’s home at Wakaliga in Lubaga division, Kampala. Lukwago had just had an interview with a couple of media houses.
He had indicated that he was going to serve the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba with court papers to respond to accusations that he and two other officers of the UPDF had violated the rights of his client Dr Kizza Besigye when they kidnapped him from Nairobi, Kenya.
Gen Muhoozi responded on his X account, threatening to arrest anybody who dared bring those court papers to him. When he learnt about the surrounding of his home, Lukwago who is not a stranger to such arrests, retreated to his bedroom and held off the security group for some hours.
However, they breached his perimeter wall and jumped into the compound. They opened the gate and then drove inside the Toyota Hiace vehicle commonly known as a Drone. In the meantime, other officers entered Lukwago’s house and started to violently bang the door to his bedroom.
The relentless banging of the door convinced Lukwago that there was nothing that he could do to stop his abduction. He opened the door and was reportedly dragged violently to the waiting vehicle. Inside the vehicle, he was allegedly blindfolded and driven to an unknown place.
Lukwago recalls that the vehicle moved for about two hours before they arrived at a place he could not figure out.
There, he was allegedly asked who he was to give “the General 24 hours before they issue a warrant of arrest.”
The operative had misconstrued Lukwago’s serving of court papers to mean warrant of arrest. As they asked these questions, they reportedly kept slapping him on the head and cheeks.
It was the shooting up of his blood pressure that perhaps saved him from more violence. When his blood pressure shot up, he was reportedly asked which medicines he was taking, and they rushed and brought them to him.
While Lukwago was later charged with one count of misprision of treason, during his violent interrogation, nothing of the sort was talked about.
“We are living in very dangerous times. Now they can arrest you for anything,” Lukwago told The Observer.
Asked about the choice of some opposition politicians to run to exile, Lukwago said: “I don’t think there is anyone who would want to run away from his/her country. But the situation we are living in has become very precarious.”
In the ongoing court cases against Dr Kizza Besigye and Hajji Obeid Lutale, Luwkago until his incarceration, was their lawyer together with Martha Karua, a senior Kenyan politician.
A few days after Lukwago’s arrest, Karua was prevented from entering Uganda at Entebbe airport and declared persona non grata.
CHRIS OBORE, WAISWA MUFUMBIRO HANGING IN THERE
In a press conference over the weekend, Winnie Byanyima, wife to Dr Besigye, said: “I’m very concerned about Erias Lukwago, he is unwell and they know it. His only crime was because he represented Besigye in court. If this is how Besigye and Lukwago can be treated, where does it leave Ugandans who have no voice?”
Meanwhile, while visiting Lukwago, The Observer also bumped into Chris Obore, the now interdicted communication director at parliament, who is on remand for embezzlement.
“I’m now here and I don’t know when I will ever leave. But that’s what it is; there is nothing I can do about it,” Obore said.
Obore, once a favoured child in the Anita Annet Among-led parliament, and six others have been committed to the High court to face charges of embezzling Shs 26.8 billion in parliament funds.
Meanwhile, at Luzira Upper Prison, Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, the deputy spokesperson of the National Unity Platform (NUP), who is going to make one year on remand next month, said most of his co-accused have since pleaded guilty to their charges and were sentenced to short prison sentences that should run out this month and at the beginning of September.
“We are now remaining eight of us who have refused to plead guilty. I know we might spend more time here, but it is [better] than agreeing to crimes we did not commit,” Mufumbiro said.
While in prison, Mufumbiro lost his bid to become the Nakawa East member of parliament, and also lost his wife, Edith Katende, to cancer.