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The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) top brass will on December 11, 2023 meet the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, and the Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga, over the alleged human rights violations by security agencies.

Adjourning  the plenary session to December 6, 2023 at 2.00 p.m, Among  on Tuesday said her deputy Thomas Tayebwa will also attend the meeting with UHRC leadership in her boardroom at Parliament.

The Speaker has been holding meetings with Mpuuga’s team and the Government to try and break the impasse over the boycott of the plenary sessions that the Opposition staged since October 19, 2023, slowing down parliamentary business.

On Tuesday, December 5, Parliament stood over the second demand by the Opposition to establish a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate what Mpuuga said are “glaring” human rights violations.  

“We propose that the said Commission of Inquiry be chaired by a Judge of the High Court. We believe that the Commission will be endowed with the authority, independence, and resources necessary to uncover the truth, to hold those responsible, accountable, and to ensure that justice prevails,” Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP on the National Unity (NUP) Platform party ticket, said in his rejoinder to the statement on the alleged unabated human rights abuses and the shrinking civic space.

He argued that like the previous statements on the issue, the Government has again taken a defensive approach to matters in which it is supposed to take the lead role in investigating and finding redress to the public outcry.

“It is not right and proper for the Government to merely dismiss issues, summarily, without giving due regard to the overwhelming evidence presented in different for a,” Mpuuga said.

Gen. David Muhoozi, the state minister for internal affairs,  in  response to  the statement by Mpuuga  said that the Government continues to account to the citizenry. 

UHRC findings

On October 10, 2023, UHRC said the NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya sent a list of 30 names of alleged missing persons to the chairperson of the UHRC, Marriam Wangadya.

“Notably, among these 30, five individuals were reportedly arrested in Nakaseke between January and February 2023. The UHRC commenced investigations into the complaints to establish the facts behind the allegations. The aim was to guide the Commission on the next course of action,” it said. 

It said the findings of these investigations established that 12 of the persons who were reported missing were arrested on suspicion of having committed several offenses and were either released on police bond or court bail.