The meeting with Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) did not take off as planned after the rights body chairperson turned up with only two technical officers.

The Speaker of Parliament Anita Among summoned UHRC boss Mariam Wangadya and other commissioners over human rights abuses.

According to the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga, the invitation required her to come with the Commissioners with whom she runs UHRC.

“Another meeting will be fixed this week,” Mpuuga said on Monday.

“We want to explore all the available avenues and get to the bottom of the abductions and enforced disappearances of our people. We shall not leave any room for scapegoats and flimsy excuses on the part of the state. Justice and rule of law must prevail,” he added.

“Earlier today, I met UHRC Chairperson. This is a continuation of efforts to address concerns about missing persons and other human rights-related issues,” Among said on Monday, December 11, 2023.

She explained that the meeting was preparatory to another one scheduled later this month, which will involve the entire membership of the Uganda Human Rights Commission, the Police leadership and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In attendance was the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga, Commissioner of Parliament Solomon Silwany and Kimanya-Kabonera Abed Bwanika.

On 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, acknowledges the statement by Mpuuga but insisted that the Government continues to account to the citizenry.

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.

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.

The Opposition MPs started boycotting the plenary sessions over alleged human rights abuses of their members and supporters on October 10, 2023, and still maintain they will only return after the Government gives a comprehensive response to their demands. The opposition has since called off the boycott.

Mpuuga summarized their demands into six points and these include responding to the issues of missing persons (18), detention without trial, human rights violations in the fishing communities, targeting and victimizing Muslims, shrinking civic space and trying civilians.