May has been a terrible month, not just for Uganda, but East Africa. Off the jump, May announced its entry with a bang and has not let up.
Charles Were
The month started with the shock assassination of Kenyan legislator Charles Were in the capital Nairobi. Little known outside East Africa’s most vibrant economy, Were was a big fish in Kasipul constituency which he represented as member of parliament.
Were was shot dead in traffic while waiting for the lights to change at a major roundabout. As Kenyan media dug into Were’s life story, details of the legislator’s life revealed he carried himself as an untouchable. There were allegations that he had sponsored the beating of political rivals and possibly the murder of a young woman who had come to him looking for work. The political establishment mourned, the Kenyan public seemed more muted and a tad unsympathetic.
Eddie Mutwe
Although he was kidnapped at the end of April (the 27th) in Kiwango village, Mukono district, Edward Ssebuufu’s plight would not become common knowledge until May 1.
This is when the Uganda People’s Defence Forces commander in chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba would reveal in a tweet that he had ordered Ssebuufu’s “detention.” In fact, Ssebuufu, better known by his alias Eddie Mutwe was being held in a basement which first son Muhoozi had direct control of. The tweet was accompanied by a headshot of a distressed Mutwe whose trademark beard had been forcefully shaven.
Not since September 1972 when Idi Amin compelled tortured and frightened ministers including Alex Ojera to “confess” to their crimes on national television had a senior army officer boasted of subjecting civilians to such degrading treatment as Muhoozi seemed to revel in. Perhaps in reaction to public outcry and private pressure, a hobbling and traumatised Mutwe finally got a court date in a Masaka court on May 6 but not proper medical treatment.
Rajiv Ruparelia
While Uganda was still reeling from the actions and words of its CDF Muhoozi, a fast lifestyle and the country’s bad roads claimed the life of the son of one its richest men when Rajiv Ruparelia died in a motor accident on May 3.
Rajiv, the son of businessman Sudhir Ruparelia, was reportedly driving towards the Busabala Flyover traffic lights when his Nissan GTR ran into concrete pillars meant to block off part of the road under construction. The only son of the business tycoon, Rajiv was 35 years of age at the time of his passing, married with a daughter.
The reaction to Rajiv’s death spoke more about public perception of Sudhir than his son who was only just establishing himself in the business world. While beloved in the motorsport and entertainment world of Uganda, Rajiv’s death did not stop voices unable to sympathise with the Ruparelia family loss for the misery the elder Ruparelia’s alleged unfair business practices have caused other families.
His shocking death once again forced attention on the carnage on Ugandan roads that continues year on year unabated with little consequence for those supposed to ensure we are all safer on them.
Boniface Mwangi, Agather Atuhaire
The 2017 assassination attempt on Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu jolted the region to the realisation that Dodoma was not any different to its neighbours in how it responds to challenges to the status quo. The onset of COVID-19 and unexpected death of its most vocal president John Pombe Magufuli diverted attention though.
The May 19 “detention” of Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and his Ugandan counterpart Agather Atuhaire and their subsequent alleged torture in custody brought crashing down the halo that Tanzania is kumbaya country. Brutalised and abandoned to fend for themselves, Atuhaire recalled in chilling detail how Tanzania harbours torture “experts” in its security agencies to rival any in Kenya and Uganda which have been known to indulge in those practices for much longer.
The “kidnapping” of Mwangi and Atuhaire confirmed for many that speaking out against abuse of power by governments will attract a heavy price mentally and physically. That May incident and the November 2024 kidnap of Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye in Nairobi confirmed the worst fears of a meme that had been making the rounds that dubbed the East African region the centre of “Kidnapistan.”
We are far from alright in East Africa. We don’t know if we will be. We have little hope of it.
