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| This video grab from an AFPTV video taken on January 21, 2022 in Kampala, Uganda, shows Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, a prominent Ugandan satirical writer and an outspoken governme – Copyright © TINA SMOLE/AFP |
Award-winning Ugandan author, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, who has accused the authorities of torturing him while he was in detention, has fled the country.
His lawyer who confirmed this would not reveal the current location of the author.
Rukirabashaija had been granted permission to leave the country to seek treatment for injuries he says he sustained during his recent month in detention at an unknown location. the permission was granted after the court had granted him bail.
The court however refused to give the novelist his passport.
Arrested at his home on December 28 and taken to an unknown location by soldiers, the writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija had visibly been tortured, according to the testimony of his lawyer and his wife.
On 17 January, the Ugandan Human Rights Commission visited the author, also noting “ the visible scars and healing wounds on his body ”.
Rukirabashaija was arrested in December and charged with offensive communication for making indecent remarks about President Yoweri Museveni and his son on Twitter.
In one he called the president’s son – army General Muhoozi Kainerugaba – “obese”.
His trial is meant to begin on 23 March.
