The Executive Director of the Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM) Henry Muguzi has said that the constant torture and extrajudicial killings of Ugandans supporting the opposition by the state has seriously changed the country’s electoral democracy to electoral authoritarianism.
In a press release issued on Friday, Muguzi expressed concern that the sad stories of the recent torture victims confirmed to the entire world that Uganda’s democracy has been shattered by state agents who have vigorously resorted to torturing members of the public opposing the sitting government.
He added that the most recent victims such as the writer Kakwenza Rukira-Bashaija and the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party coordinator in Kasese district Samuel Masereka, whose torture ordeals evoked wide-raging citizen concerns, left questions in the public of who is the next because torture is no longer a shame to present regime.
“This begs the question: What is the extent to which Uganda has drifted from electoral democracy to electoral authoritarianism, and what is the genealogy of this detestable situation? Yet, financing of the security sector including the ministry of defence takes the biggest share of the national budget of up to Shs7trillion ($1.94 billion),” Muguzi said.
“Organizing the general election in 2021 that saw Gen. Yoweri Museveni renew his mandate for the 6th term office, cost the Ugandan taxpayer a total of Shs653.598 billion ($181.555 million) but this is the regime that is superintending over the heinous acts of torture and degrading treatment of citizens (taxpayers)!”
In Uganda, issues of torture and extrajudicial killings started escalating in the last general elections and victims have always told sad stories of how state agents tortured them although the government has always denied supporting the practice despite the fact that the perpetrators have never been apprehended.
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