Stella Nayiga, the 24-year-old wife of one of the 177 "missing persons" listed as being under government custody, Kassim Migadde, 32, is wondering who has been eating the food she has severally taken to Kitalya prison.
Nayiga explains that before the government released the list of the people they have in their custody, she has been taking food and other items to Kitalya prison. However, the list of the 177 detainees on which Migadde appears, shows that he is currently detained in Makindye barracks.
This has left Nayiga wondering whether someone has been 'enjoying' the food items and other requirements that include sandals, toothpaste and soap that she delivered to Kitalya prison for him.
''I have been taking rice, cooking oil, sugar, soap and other items to Kitalya and spending over Shs 200,000 every time I go there," Nayiga says.
"Now I am just wondering who could be the person taking advantage of a poor woman like me for all the three times I have delivered things there!"
Nayiga narrates that her husband Migadde, a boda boda rider in Kajjansi, was kidnapped by people in the infamous 'drone' vehicle on December 21, 2020, from Kajansi in broad daylight. She says she learnt about the kidnap on December 23 2020, from one of his friends who was present during the arrest at Kajjansi stage.
Nayiga was told that Migadde had been taken to Makindye barracks, but on reaching there on December 26, the security personnel at the entrance told her that they did not have anyone with the names of Kassim Migadde before she was referred to Kitalya prison.
She says that after two days, she went to Kitalya prison and on reaching there, she was told that the person she was looking for was not there either.
''When they told me that he was not at Kitalya prison, I decided to go back to Makindye that very day with my anger but this time with my husband's brother," Nayiga said.
"This time we were very furious with the security officer who was at the gate, who then admitted that they have my husband though they did not allow us to see him.''
Nayiga says that on January 18, 2021, she read in the newspapers that the Army Court Martial in Makindye had remanded seven National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters to Kitalya prison for unlawful use of military uniform, and her husband Migadde was among them.
She says that after reading the news article, she had to wait up to February 1 when the accused were scheduled to return to court but this never happened. She says that she gained confidence when the information she got from the article was confirmed by the security in Kitalya that her husband was under their custody. She then reached out to National Unity Platform (NUP) party about the matter.
It was at this point that she learnt about the presence of Edward Ssebufu aka Eddy Mutwe the NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi's head of security in the same prison. On her first visit to Kitalya prison, she went with people who had gone to visit Eddy Mutwe and other NUP members and they had carried with them some food items.
She says that since that time, she also started taking food items to Kitalya basing on the information that the seven NUP supporters that included her husband were remanded to Kitalya prison.
Nayiga says that though she never got access to see her husband due to the excuse of COVID-19, she continued to visit the prison using the little she had. She wonders why the prison authorities refused her to see her husband on the pretext of COVID-19, yet the security officers themselves freely interact with the detainees' relatives and friends without any social distancing.
She says that her husband was the breadwinner of the family of two children who are now with their grandparents. She says that she is currently renting a small room where she is doing tailoring, adding that it is from this that she tries to support her children and the husband in prison.
''Considering what I am still going through since the arrest of my husband, it is regretable if the food I have been taking to Kitalya with hope that my husband is there, he has never tasted it,'' Nayiga added.
Migadde appeared on the list of missing persons that was released by the Internal Affairs minister Jjeje Odongo and is one of the seven persons that pleaded not guilty on accusations of being found wearing red berets that are said to be monopoly of defense forces, following their arrest during the November 18-19, 2020 protests.
Prisons spokesperson Frank Baine says that Migadde was remanded to Kitalya prison on January 18, 2021 by the Court Martial.
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