By Spy Uganda
Award-winning novelist, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has been remanded for disturbing peace of President Yoweri Museveni and First son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba on Twitter.
The greedy barbarian novelist has been in detention since December 28, 2021 causing public out-roar from the international community and Ugandans both in the diaspora and at home.
Following the public outcry, Kakwenza has today been charged with two counts of disturbing the peace of President Museveni and that of UPDF Land Forces Commander Gen Muhoozi Keinerugaba.
“Kakwenza, on 24th December 2021 in Kampala District willfully and repeatedly used his twitter handle @KakwenzaRukira to disturb the peace of His Excellency the President of Uganda Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with no purpose of legitimate communication,” part of the charge sheet seen by this website reads.
The sheet further states that between 26th and 28th December, Kakwenza used his Twitter handle to “disturb the peace of Lt Gen Muhoozi Keinerugaba with no purpose of legitimate communication.”
In a High Court sitting on Monday, Justice Musa Ssekaana ordered the security agencies to without fail produce Kakwenza on Wednesday this week after orders of producing him on Monday didn’t yield any positive result.
The above orders came after a successful application by Kakwenza’s wife Eva Basima through her lawyers led by Eron Kiiza who told the court that their client has been in unknown detention and held incommunicado which is a violation of his rights.
Kakwenza’s lawyer Eron Kiiza says he has been denied access to his client and that he had been tortured while in custody.
“Police are fearing to produce him in court with torture marks, that’s why they are delaying to bring him to court,” he said.
Rukirabashaija has been repeatedly arrested since “The Greedy Barbarian” was published. He has said he was tortured while being interrogated by military intelligence about his work. At the time, he was accused of breaching Covid-19 social distancing rules, inciting violence and promoting sectarianism.
He described his time in detention as “inhumane and degrading” in his most recent book “Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous”.
Meanwhile, in October 2021, Kakwenza was awarded as the winner of International Writer of Courage at the PEN Pinter Prize function. This annual award is normally presented to a person who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs.
