Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Uganda: Why I Fled Kampala - Nyanzi



Alex Esagala/Daily Monitor
Stella Nyanzi.

4 FEBRUARY 2021
Nairobi News (Nairobi)By Amina Wako

Ugandan political activist Stella Nyanzi has exclusively told Nairobi News she was forced to escape into Kenya after her partner was abducted by President Yoweri Museveni's regime.

Nyanzi and her three children are currently in Nairobi in search of political asylum.

She claims to have been politically persecuted by authorities in her home country in the aftermath of the January 14 general elections.

"I am in Kenya because Ugandans in the opposition who have criticized the government of Yoweri Museveni are getting abducted every day from the streets, from their homes, from their beds. Ugandans are kidnapped from private cars and taken to detention facilities where they are tortured and interrogated about their next plans for the liberation," explained the academic scholar.

Nyanzi, a former research fellow at Makerere University, lost in her bid to become Kampala Woman MP during the polls. She adds that she is happy to have made it out of Uganda alive.

"The fear of not knowing who will be taken next, my friends have been abducted, my partner has been abducted, I think I am fortunate that I got out when I could," she said.

For now, Dr. Nyanzi says she will rest, re-strategize, learn about the system and be back with the power to push for the emancipation of Uganda from the current regime which she described as authoritarian.

The fiery activist spent 18 months in prison for reportedly harassing President Museveni's family on social media but was released in February 2020 for lack of evidence.

This is just but one of the numerous times she has been behind bars for rubbing shoulders with the regime.

"I am an ex-prisoner, I have been in prison so many times, I do not know what freedom is. I identify myself as a prisoner, not because it is sexy, but because it speaks of the judicial failure in my country," she said.

She criticized Uganda's government for failing to provide the most basic services to its citizens and only focused on silencing the vocal who demand change.

Professor Luchiri Wajackoyah, whose law firm is representing the activist revealed that she crossed the Uganda-Kenya border "in disguise" to avoid detection by security agents.

He also added that her children too, are "in a safe house" in Nairobi.

Read the original article on Nairobi News.

Ugandan activist Stella Nyanzi flees to Kenya


WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 03 2021

By WASHINGTON GIKUNJU

Ugandan academic cum political activist, Dr Stella Nyanzi, has fled to Nairobi, Kenya.

This was confirmed by her lawyer, Prof George Luchiri Wajackoyah, who cited political persecution by President Yoweri Museveni's government for the move. 

Dr Nyanzi, a former research fellow at Makerere University who ran for Kampala Woman MP seat in last month’s general election, arrived in Nairobi by bus on Saturday.

Prof Wajackoyah, in an interview, said she is seeking political asylum in Kenya.

“The abductions and detentions of political actors were getting closer to me; my children have been targets of police trailing. I just left prison in February last year and I don’t want to go back,” Dr Nyanzi said in a telephone interview.

She crossed the Uganda-Kenya border “in disguise” to avoid detection by security agents. Her children are also “in a safe house” in Nairobi.

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate came third in the January 14, 2021 parliamentary elections won by National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate, Shamim Malende.

President Museveni, who has been in power for 35 years, was declared winner of the bitterly contested polls.

Opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, who termed the polls as fraudulent, spent 11 days under house arrest after the January 14 elections before the High Court ordered security forces to withdraw from his home. 

He has filed a petition in the country’s Supreme Court, seeking cancellation of the results.

Across the border, Tanzanian ex-MP Godbless Lema fled to Kenya with his family to escape what he termed as threats to his life, before Canada granted him asylum.

Tanzania opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who rejected the results, is also in asylum in Belgium.

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