A total of 15 case files were opened against the Turkish-based Ugandan blogger, Fred Lumbuye, who was arrested in Turkey last week, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, has revealed.

Lumbuye was arrested on accusations of posting acrimonious messages on social media against several public figures in the country, including the President. Lumbuye was expected to be repatriated last weekend to face a raft of charges, but he has not yet been brought back to date.

While addressing the press in Kampala today, Enanga said; “once Lumbuye is handed over to Uganda police, we shall process him along with his 15 case files that were opened against him.”

On where Lumbuye is currently, Enanga said he is not yet in their hands. “If he is not in our hands, how do you expect us to come out and tell the public where he is?”

Enanga noted that the police is a very respectful institution and that they will wait until at whatever stage Lumbuye is handed over to them so they can process his case files.

Uganda welcomes Lumbuye arrest

On August 4 last week, Uganda welcomed the arrest of Lumbuye, who is accused of posting false and acrimonious messages on social media.

While addressing the media, the Foreign Affairs state minister in charge of international affairs, Henry Okello Oryem, said Lumbuye’s arrest is a message to all Ugandans wherever they are that they can be arrested if they commit a crime.

“His arrest is an action every Ugandan should celebrate, knowing that whoever commits a crime will be punished regardless of where he or she is. Whoever commits a crime will pay for it,” Oryem said.

The minister added; “there is no room for breaking the law. Whoever breaks the law should be punished, including me. He (Lumbuye) thought being in Turkey was a special case. there is nobody above the law. If you break the law in any country, the legal system will catch up with you and punish you.”

Oryem said Lumbuye forgot that once someone breaks the law wherever they are and the authorities of the land realise it, they will have such offenders arrested and they face the law just like he was arrested in Turkey.

Earlier, Oryem said Lumbuye deserved to be arrested for causing acrimony in Uganda through his social media posts.

Security sources confirmed his arrest and revealed that a team of operatives attached to Uganda’s External Security Organisation, working with the Turkish security, tracked and arrested Lumbuye from his hideout in Turkey.

Following Lumbuye’s arrest, a number of Ugandans, both local and in the diaspora who support him, turned to social media to claim that he had been kidnapped. However, on learning that Lumbuye had been arrested, they launched fundraising to get lawyers for him.

Museveni directs

On July 8, President Yoweri Museveni directed security services to track down people who misuse social media by spreading false information.

The President said there was a need to crack down on the people who are misemploying social media, including the Ugandans living abroad. He noted that many of them are now using it to spread baseless and tasteless news with total abandon.

“Another idiotic problem that we need to solve is the social media. Social media apparently has been saying that Museveni is dead. So, the security service needs also to solve that problem. I need to check with them to locate quickly the one who tells such a story because you waste people’s time, they should go for you,” Museveni said

This followed a series of fake news being peddled via social media, including one where Lumbuye and other bloggers spread falsehoods that Museveni had died.

Who is Lumbuye?

Fred Kajubi Lumbuye is a Ugandan blogger who became famous for his critical posts against the government, especially recorded videos that he would always post on Facebook.

Little is known about Lumbuye, but a search on social media shows that he was so active during the presidential campaign period that saw President Museveni win his sixth term of office during the January 14 elections.

Lumbuye’s Facebook page shows that he was a staunch activist of the National Unity Platform (NUP), and he ardently campaigned for the NUP candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, via social media during the January presidential race. Lumbuye has been living and working in Turkey.