The arrest of Erias Lukwago raises a question that should concern every Ugandan, regardless of political affiliation: if a senior lawyer can be seized under disputed circumstances while representing a controversial client, what protection remains for the ordinary citizen?
This is not simply about one man or one dramatic morning in Wakaliga. It is about whether the institutions that support democratic governance can function when legal representation, security operations and political power appear to collide.
According to his family, armed operatives entered Lukwago’s home without producing a warrant, assaulted relatives and took him away while confiscating phones. Police later said they were unaware of the arrest.
At the same time, Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba posted messages on social media declaring that he had “captured a FOOL and taken him to the basement” and later added, “I’m proud of ALL the hurt and pain I will inflict on the ‘CRIMINAL LUKWAGO’.”
The facts surrounding the operation will ultimately require verification. But even on the public record alone, the contradictions are striking. How can a high-profile arrest occur without clear institutional ownership?
How can police profess ignorance while the country’s top military officer appears to celebrate the detention online? Those questions go beyond politics. They go to the credibility of the state itself.
The deeper concern is the effect on legal due process. Lukwago is not only a political figure; he is also the lead defence counsel for Dr Kizza Besigye and Hajj Obeid Lutale in an ongoing treason case.
Lawyers occupy a unique place in any constitutional democracy. They are not extensions of their clients’ views or actions. Their role is to ensure that justice is tested through evidence, argument and law rather than force or intimidation.
If advocates begin to fear that representing certain clients could expose them to personal risk, the right to a fair trial becomes fragile. That is not merely a problem for opposition figures.
It is a problem for every citizen who may one day depend on independent legal representation. The episode also exposes a persistent institutional weakness: the blurred lines between security agencies, public communication and accountability.
When official explanations are absent or contradictory, speculation fills the vacuum. Public trust erodes, and confidence in the justice system suffers. The remedy is neither complicated nor partisan.
Arrests must follow transparent legal procedures. Warrants should be produced where required. Detainees should have prompt access to lawyers and family. Security agencies should communicate through accountable institutions rather than social media.
And where allegations of abuse arise, independent investigations should establish the facts quickly and publicly. The strength of a democracy is not measured by how it treats the popular or the powerful. It is measured by how faithfully it protects the rights of those caught in its most contentious disputes.
Uday Hussein was there before this one could even properly press his own shirts; we all know how he ended. We watch.
The tables one day must turn. When that happens, one prays that this notion of reconciliation and forgiveness is set aside, until this wannabe and all his aides get to taste a dose of their medicine. In full. That day can’t come quickly enough. God, where are you?
Lukwago’s arrest puts rule of law on trial. Indeed it is an underestimation that is coming out of the mouth of the editor of the observer. That is why one would prefer to read and learn through the determined written journals of the UK observer that reports international and national issues without any inherent fear.
This is a British mass news publication that reported about the misery of apartheid in South Africa while the British and American policies, one hundred percent, supported such an evil political system. Now that modern American Imperialism is right now determining the rule of law all over planet earth, the CDF of Uganda is a military trainee of the American military academy at the expanses of the tax payers of Uganda.
M7 has tried his best to bluff his rule as sincere now 40 years and counting. America and Europe, plus the African Union have indeed assisted M7 and his NRM guerilla warfare movement government to spread the modern African democracy and human rights (universal rule of law) in Somalia, South Sudan, Rwanda, Congo, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, and so many other African countries.
M7 in 45 years of political propaganda, articulated his African message that African problems can only be solved by Africans. Who right now cannot see through such political lies in Uganda as equivalent to the lies of those ones in the USA and its interference in the internal affaires of many countries in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Venezuela? Soon the VIP Uganda CDF might be recalled for a refresher course in the USA, or Nigerian military academies!
Ugandans need to understand where Muhoozi’s behaviors originates from; Excitement, Confusion at the same time Overwhelmed. At times, I sympathize with him as he grew up without a real mom, taken care by many Moms, relatives, friends with a father who was never around.
Right now, Muhoozi is demonstrating a stage in life he missed-Youthful stage. He needs help! My advice to Muhoozi and many others out there, GET AWAY from worshipping Bachwezi spirit. Don’t dare mix it with Jesus. You can’t serve two masters. Jesus is the Rock, Bachwezi claims their spiritual powers is in the mountains/rocks(Lubaale). Jesus is the Lamb that was sacrificed for us.
Bachwezi believes in humans, animals or birds blood sacrifice. Bachwezi spirit can manipulate, confuse and derail you in a way that could lead you to madness…Jesus offers healing from all Bachwezi spirits and etc. About missing a stage in life – play with your kids or cousins let them kick your butt, wrestle, roll in the dirty with them, dance with them, be normal…No camera or any one watching you. This will satisfy the little boy in you that wasn’t taken care of.
In other words, who in his/her right state of mind can still deny that: 45 years and counting, Ugandans are under the iron grip of a regime of criminals, by criminals and for criminals? Therefore, it is the criminals who with impunity take the law into their hands: to abducts, torture, criminalize, indefinitely prosecute and/or imprison.
It is e.g., very easy for the Police Spokesperson/s or IGP, to condemn and caution angry and frustrated Boda-boda Riders from taking the law into their hands (Mob Justice). But it is impossible for the same Police Spokesperson/s or IGP, to condemn and caution the Chief of Defence Force (CDF), BLOODY, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba and Goons; from taking the law into his/theirs hands, through abducting, forcefully disappear, torture and detain their battered victims in ungazetted premises (Bloody Basement).