The Muwanga Kivumbi disappearance has stretched into a 13th day, with Uganda’s main opposition party accusing the military of holding its deputy president incommunicado in defiance of a court-ordered bail release.
Human Rights Watch confirmed on 23 July that Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, deputy president of the National Unity Platform for the Buganda region, has not been heard from since armed soldiers pulled him from his car at a checkpoint in Mpigi District on 10 July. The rights group described the case as an enforced disappearance, a term reserved for situations where state agents detain a person and then refuse to confirm the detention or disclose their location.
Kivumbi had spent nearly five months in custody before the International Crimes Division of the High Court granted him bail on 9 July over terrorism charges he denies. He was arrested a day later while travelling back to Butambala, according to his legal team, who trace the start of the Muwanga Kivumbi disappearance to that roadside stop and say he has not surfaced since.
The disappearance of Kivumbi came to a head this week when his case was called at the Butambala Chief Magistrate’s Court and he failed to appear. Neither the state prosecutor nor his own lawyers could tell the magistrate where he was being held. The prosecution asked the court to issue summons compelling his appearance, a request his defence team opposed on the grounds that he remained in government custody.
Kivumbi’s family has since filed a habeas corpus application seeking his immediate release. Justice Collins Acellam of the High Court declined to order that, ruling that a court cannot compel the production of a person when the detaining authority has not been identified. He instead directed security agencies to conclude investigations into Kivumbi’s whereabouts and report back within seven days.
The Uganda Police Force has denied holding him, leaving the Muwanga Kivumbi disappearance without an identified detaining authority more than a fortnight after he was last seen.
Human Rights Watch notes that Ugandan security agencies have repeatedly re-arrested opposition figures and critics within days of courts granting them bail or acquittals, a pattern that predates the current case. The group argues this practice effectively nullifies judicial rulings and places detainees outside the protection of the law, heightening the risk of torture and other abuses for anyone held incommunicado.
NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, used the party’s sixth anniversary celebrations to renew calls for Kivumbi’s release, insisting his deputy has been unlawfully detained. He described the Muwanga Kivumbi disappearance as symptomatic of a wider crackdown on the opposition, and party officials say the case follows a now familiar pattern in which government critics are re-arrested within days of being granted bail by the courts.
Kivumbi is one of three NUP deputy presidents detained since January’s general election. Jolly Tukamushaba and Lina Zedriga, who lead the party’s western and northern regions respectively, were held incommunicado for several days before their release. Kivumbi, by contrast, was formally charged with orchestrating a violent attack on a police station and a polling station, an allegation he rejects.
Human Rights Watch has linked the Muwanga Kivumbi disappearance to a broader pattern of unlawful detentions targeting opposition figures and government critics in Uganda in recent weeks. The group has called on the authorities to disclose his whereabouts immediately, release him, and end what it describes as an assault on political opposition.
For now, the seven day window set by Justice Acellam offers the clearest timeline for when fresh information might emerge. Kivumbi’s family and party colleagues say they will continue pressing the courts and international rights bodies until his location is confirmed.
The stakes extend beyond one politician’s fate. Kivumbi is a sitting Butambala County legislator, and his continued absence from both court and Parliament raises fresh questions about how far Uganda’s security establishment is willing to go to sideline vocal critics of President Yoweri Museveni’s government. Rights groups have already flagged the Muwanga Kivumbi disappearance alongside other recent detentions as part of a wider crackdown on opposition figures following January’s contested general election, and they are pressing Kampala to account for every person still unaccounted for.
Until the government responds to the court’s directive, Kivumbi’s exact location, and the identity of whoever is holding him, remain officially unknown.
