In a twist of events, National Unity Platform founding leader Moses Nkonge Kibalama has ran to court to sue government for being tortured.
Last year, Kibalama told the High Court in Kampala that he had never sold his party to Robert Kyagulanyi but minutes of the meeting that purportedly saw the political party change hands had been forged.
However, in a petition to the High Court in Kampala, Kibalama together with Ssimbwa Paul Kagombe , the NURP Secretary-General were forced to make the statements as seen in court against their will.
The petition was later dismissed by Justice Musa Ssekaana.
According to Kibalama, he on August,20, 2020 called by Difasi Basile and Hassan Twala complaining of the transfer of the party leadership and that he set out to meet the duo.
“I informed Ssimbwa that I had been invited to a meeting with Prosper Busingye and we agreed to meet the following day at Hotel Sojovalo in Lubaga with other stakeholders and this was scheduled for 8am,”Kibalama says in his affidavit.
He says that the two later went for the meeting where they also James Byamukama and Busingye together with armed escorted where they sought an adjournment in the court case in order to reach an amicable solution but the same was declined.
“They declined this and insisted that the President of Uganda had instructed them to get Ssimbwa and I so as to work with them on the case. We were informed that two senior government officials would also meet us to reaffirm the position of the government on this matter.”
According to the affidavit, they were later called into another room at Sojovalo hotel where they met the former International Security Organisation boss, Col.Kaka Bagyenda.
Kibalama says the duo was told by Kaka that the state had picked interest in them for purposes of winning the court case and that they had to cooperate by providing information as requested for.
“Byamukama who had left us with Kaka returned with printed documents which he gave us to sign in confirmation of what the applicant had filed in court. We refused to sign these documents because they were in contradiction of the documents that we had earlier signed with our lawyers.”
He avers that Byamukama later made phone calls to unknown people who later joined the meeting and introduced themselves as Rwakafuzi, the deputy Attorney General and Rwamagemani, the director of Political Affairs at ISO.
Coached
Kibalama says in the affidavit that later, they were taken to G hotel in Lubaga where security personnel were deployed around their rooms and that it was at this time that the duo realized they were in trouble.
“Our phones were taken from us and switched off to keep us from communicating to people outside the building and instead we were given ne phones and numbers. Visitors were never allowed to see us, neither were our next of kin nor lawyers and personal doctors as we stayed in the hotel rooms for two weeks.”
During last year’s court case, court asked the 58-year-old former driver to President Obote whether he was being forced to give testimony in court but he denied the same.
However, in the latest affidavit before court, Kibalama says that prior to the testimony in court, the duo was under duress as their lives and those of their friends and family members.
“During all this time, I was under the forceful custody of the state agents, my rights and freedoms were violated. I was forced and coached to present thoughts and views that were not my own,” he says.
Declaration
Kibalama and Ssimbwa want court to declare that the several government officials mentioned in the affidavit violated the duo’s rights guaranteed under the constitution of Uganda.
“The applicant seeks an order of redress by way of compensation for the violations done by the respondent. The respondent should pay to the applicants exemplary and punitive damages for the high handed manner in which the various violations were done,” the court documents in which the Attorney General has been listed as a respondent read in part.
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