Global Politics
How NUP Boss Muwanga Kivumbi Is Coping Up With Prison Life, Pours Cold Water On Proposal To Negotiate His Release With M7
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Kivumbi’s arrest resulted from the brutal murder of his supporters at his Butambala home, where they had gathered to study their performance in the concluded parliamentary elections, where he was contesting on his political party ticket and was defeated by veteran journalist Erias Mukiibi Sserunjogi, a brother to the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Finance.
Veteran political journalist Peter Kibazo is among the people who visited the maverick National Unity Platform (NUP) National deputy president in charge of Buganda, Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, at Kitalya Maximum Security Prison.
Kivumbi was recently charged before the Butambala Chief Magistrates Court with terrorism charges and remanded to prison.
Kivumbi’s arrest resulted from the brutal murder of his supporters at his Butambala home, where they had gathered to study their performance in the concluded parliamentary elections, where he was contesting on his political party ticket and was defeated by veteran journalist Erias Mukiibi Sserunjogi, a brother of the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Finance.
Moderating Gasimbaganne ne bannamawulire, a political talk show on Radio Simba, where Kivumbi has been a panellist for years, Kibazo said that he found his friend in good spirits and coping well with prison life.
He added that prisons authority allows him to access a small radio, and he is following what is going on outside prison, including listening to those who are celebrating the troubles he is going through.
Sources said that Kivumbi was given three pairs of long yellow with black striped trousers and a short-sleeved shirt as his clothes.
His wife Dr Zahara Nampewo, who is a law don at Makerere university is responsible for his diet, and she packs for him fruits, greens and other vegetables which he eats. She also encourages him to keep exercising because he is suffering from depression.
Family sources said that they are happy with Kivumbi’s spirit in the prison, but the only scare they have is the health situation of his mother, who was traumatised by the incident that happened at her home when armed men raided Kivumbi’s home and allegedly shot at his supporters randomly. She was rushed to the hospital after collapsing.
“After learning about all the incidents that happened at Kivumbi’s home, I called him onthe phone and my first question to him was, is your mother alive? ‘ because I know what she means in Kivumbi’s life,” Kibazo said.
Defeated Butambala district woman Member of Parliament, who is also NUP’s deputy secretary general, Hajjat Aisha Kabanda, said that all the people who were at Kivumbi’s home when the incident happened were traumatized and some were badly beaten by raiders.
She revealed that she is also just recovering and still has injuries on her body because she is a victim.
Ono Bwino further established that Kivumbi has declined the proposal he received from different people who visited him, including family members,s to engage President Museveni so as to negotiate his release, insisting that he cannot negotiate about something he didn’t do.
The development comes after his wife publicly disclosed that she is ready to meet President Museveni and narrate to him what happened on that fateful day when innocent youths were murdered at their country home in Butambala.
Kivumbi one day told this reporter that when Lord Mayor Ssalongo Erias Lukwago was going through political troubles, including his impeachment, he stood with him when he rubbished the proposal of going to negotiate with Museveni so as to survive.
Museveni alleged that on election day, Kivumbi commanded machete goons to attack tally centres and kill people,e even though the defeated Nakaseke South legislator, Paul Luttamaguzi, insisted that Kivumbi’s home was attacked because security was responding to misleading intelligence information that Kivumbi had established a national tally centre to collect and sum up all votes of his political party leader, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine).
Kivumbi’s family of the late Haji Ali Lutaaya of Bugoye Butambala, appointed their son’s longtime friend and outgoing Kampala city Lord Mayor Ssalongo Erias Lukwago to lead his legal team. Other lawyers include: Medard Lubega Ssogona, the outgoing Busiro East legislator, Bugiri Municipality outgoing legislator Asuman Basalirwa and Abubaker Ssekanjako
