Rwakasisi final journey to Luzira
Jan 23, 2009
Chris Rwakasisi was the Minister of State in the Office of the President during the Obote II regime. He was in charge of the National Security Agency (NASA), a secret Police under the Obote II regime in the early 1980s.
By Ben Okiror
Chris Rwakasisi was the Minister of State in the Office of the President during the Obote II regime. He was in charge of the National Security Agency (NASA), a secret Police under the Obote II regime in the early 1980s.
Rwakasisi’s journey to incarceration began with his arrest on July 27, 1985, at the River Nile in Jinja while fleeing, following a coup by the late Tito Okello Lutwa.
The former minister was initially detained at Magamaga Barracks, before being transferred to Luzira Prison.
He was then detained on orders signed by the then acting Minister of Internal Affairs, the late Ojok Mulozi.
The military junta detained more than 1,000 NASA members with Rwakasisi at Luzira Maximum Prison.
When President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army overthrew Okello’s military junta in 1986, fresh charges were brought against Rwakasisi, following a commission of inquiry. He went on trial from 1986.
Two years later, he was sentenced to death by Justice Ignatius Mukanza of the High Court sitting in Mbarara.
Rwakasisi appealed to the Supreme Court against the conviction but the court upheld the sentence.
He was sentenced to death on June 30, 1988 after being found guilty of six counts of kidnap charges.
Since then, he had been on death row until President Yoweri Museveni, in consultation with the committee on the prerogative of mercy, pardoned him on January 20, 2009. After the pardon, Rwakasisi thanked the President, saying: “This is what I asked him to do in 1989, when I wrote to him.â€
Chris Rwakasisi was the Minister of State in the Office of the President during the Obote II regime. He was in charge of the National Security Agency (NASA), a secret Police under the Obote II regime in the early 1980s.
Rwakasisi’s journey to incarceration began with his arrest on July 27, 1985, at the River Nile in Jinja while fleeing, following a coup by the late Tito Okello Lutwa.
The former minister was initially detained at Magamaga Barracks, before being transferred to Luzira Prison.
He was then detained on orders signed by the then acting Minister of Internal Affairs, the late Ojok Mulozi.
The military junta detained more than 1,000 NASA members with Rwakasisi at Luzira Maximum Prison.
When President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army overthrew Okello’s military junta in 1986, fresh charges were brought against Rwakasisi, following a commission of inquiry. He went on trial from 1986.
Two years later, he was sentenced to death by Justice Ignatius Mukanza of the High Court sitting in Mbarara.
Rwakasisi appealed to the Supreme Court against the conviction but the court upheld the sentence.
He was sentenced to death on June 30, 1988 after being found guilty of six counts of kidnap charges.
Since then, he had been on death row until President Yoweri Museveni, in consultation with the committee on the prerogative of mercy, pardoned him on January 20, 2009. After the pardon, Rwakasisi thanked the President, saying: “This is what I asked him to do in 1989, when I wrote to him.â€