WANTED: Ugandan Journalist Flees After Links With ADF

By Our Reporter

A Ugandan Journalist who went to London, United Kingdom to cover an

International sports championship, has his return to the country foiled after a recent failed assassination attempt at Gen. Katumba Wamala.

This news site understands that the Bukedde TV journalist, Hussein Mukiibi Wasswa, has been linked to the attack in which security has since linked it the incident to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

Bukedded TV is a government owned Media Empire. Mukiibi worked here as a field reporter and an anchor.

Despite working for a government agency, he kept an independent mind and continued secretly supporting the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).

During the turbulent times of 2015 and 2016 when mainly Muslim youths were being rounded up and arrested with links to subversive activities of the rebel Allied Democratic Forces, Mukiibi started receiving threats.

A relative who sought anonymity told the The Second Opinion   that twice Mukiibi received warning from anonymous people claiming to be Local Council officials who alleged that Mukiibi was a sympathizer of the ADF rebels.

At the climax of campaigns for the 2016 Ugandan elections Mukiibi is said to have been arrested one evening as he returned from New Vision offices.

This followed a raid on his home.  Mukiibi spent a night in police cells on alleged

involvement in subversive activities.

But the journalist was being implicated like other Muslims in the country who

have been framed and implicated in the killings of prominent people in the country, which Mukiibi denies. 

Between 2016 and 2017 Mukiibi is said he lived under tension, fear and an uncertainty on his life after continued clamp down on Muslim clerics.

Mukiibi is said to have weighed in on the fraught political moment and decided to shift his efforts towards advocacy for civil education, human rights, democracy, the rule of law and good governance.

“It came as a golden chance for him to cover the 2017 world athletics championship in London where Ugandan athletes were featuring,” said a reliable source.

But the source added that to his consternation when he reached London and reported sports stories on Bukedde Television and Bukedde newspaper his detractors at home claimed he had gone to London to meet ADF rebels.

As a result the Local Council officials in the area with support from Local

Defence units raided and ransacked his Namasuba residence reportedly in search for arms which in reality were non – existent.

When Mukiibi returned to Uganda in August 2017 from UK where he had gone to cover the IAAF World Athletics Championships, he was arrested by the army and detained for nine weeks in Kololo.

“It became clear his detractors were determined to send him to prison. He had no option but make swift arrangements to fly out of the country.” said a relative.

It is not clear how Mukiibi left the country for the UK where he has now been reduced to an asylum seeker. Back in Uganda, the journalist has a wife and children who have since gone into hiding for fear of their lives.

He has since joined progressive forces in the diaspora to promote human rights and social justice through National Unity Platform (NUP) UK Chapter, according to messages on his Facebook page.

Mukiibi was part of the demonstrations by Ugandans in the United Kingdom opposing President Yoweri Museveni’s re-election, violation of human rights, and abductions of NUP supporters by state agents in the dreaded drones. Two of his relatives were last December kidnapped and detained in unknown location for six months for supporting opposition NUP.

Earlier, the Uganda Sports Press Association (USPA) member, was a sympathizer of the opposition FDC party before crossing to the People Power pressure group which later became National Unity Platform.

The biggest problem youths with divergent views face today is uncertainty about their security and safety in Uganda as youths continue to be picked up a detained and tortured while others die under mysterious circumstances.