Political Activist, Human Rights Advocate and Feminist Stella Nyanzi has expressesd no regret for the unkind sentiments she made which like her, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was similarly arrested for.
This was during an interview with Fatboy where Nyanzi commented that although their statements may be impolite, they are true.
“They are true, they might be unkind but they are true.” She said, adding that, “I think if Uganda’s oppressors want us to write kindly about them, they have to induce conditions for this. However, the plight that we undergo as Ugandans doesn't call for it. It's truthful to write bitterly and painfully about the everyday activities under a brutal military regime.”
Fatboy then asked Nyanzi whether she thought the arrests were being carried out in the interest of those they are directed to or those who want to win recognition of their seniors.
She replied, “I know for a fact that there might be a number of ambitious, hungry underlings who will go out of their way to arrest and interrogate through torture the marked critics of Museveni and his family. I also know that Yoweri Museveni, Muhoozi Kainerugaba and Janet Museveni have vested interests in reprimanding and silencing those of us who criticize them in satirical and ironical ways using mockery. These are the part of the tools available to us and nobody has a right to tell us how to use them,” she vocalized.
She added that she was certain that the Commander of Land Forces Muhoozi Kainerugaba ordered the ‘abduction’ of Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabasaija who she said must have been whisked by the Special Forces Command (SFC).
Having been in the same situation once, Fatboy asked the Doctor about where she thought this was headed.
She responded by saying that the abductions and kidnappings of political activists like Kakwenza are not new occurrences in Uganda, which she partly blamed on the prisons.
“I think part of the great disappointments in Uganda’s current penal services are the prison penal services which did not wait to get a court order releasing Kakwenza before they gave him up to the hands of these unknown strangers who drove him away in a black-tinted Double Cabin pickup.”
She continued on how the description of the car matched the trucks which were bought with Covid-19 funds, wondering whether they were bought to brutalize them. “I think that as the NRM celebrates Tarehe Sita, which is unfortunate because only God know what they are celebrating, , cars given to Ugandans for public health regarding Covid-19 are now being used to drag away tortured, battered, wounded ex-remanded prisoners!”
Away from that, Fatboy questioned Nyanzi on where she would be spending the liberation day celebrations. She revealed that she has so far spent two weeks on a scholarship program that was awarded to her as one of the writers in the exile program of PEN International in Germany. “I am excited that the scholarship has begun but the context of Kakwenza Rukirabasahija underscores the insecurity and unsafety that is facing writers and government critics who refuse merely to sing praises to a failed, violent, brutal, militant, autocratic regime,” she concluded.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, Sarah and Lesham every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.
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