Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has reportedly escaped from Uganda on Wednesday via the Rwanda Border.
According to information from his legal counsel Eron Kiiza, Kakwenza has fled to an undisclosed African Country and is expected to fly to Europe in three days.
Kiiza says Kakwenza decided to run aboard the Kigali International Airport to seek proper medical attention despite being denied his passport before the courts of law.
On Monday, the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court denied Kakwenza’s request to have his passport returned to enable him to attend an event in Germany where he was to be recognized as an Honorary Member of Pen International.
Kakwenza had previously claimed torture by state operatives following his release from Kitalya Government Prison. He claimed theyinjected him with substances in his feet and hands six times every six hours, denied him sleep, and made to dance with a jerrycan full of water.
Kakwenza was arrested on December 28, 2021, from his home in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb, and held incommunicado until January 11, 2022, when he was produced in court on two cases of offensive communication.
According to the Prosecutors, Kakwenza used his Twitter handle @KakwenzaRukira to post a series of tweets about President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his son Lt General Muhoozi Kainerugaba with no purpose of legitimate communication. In one of the tweets, Kakwenza refers to the President as an election thief and in another, he calls Muhoozi overweight and intellectually bankrupt.
The prosecutors argue that the communication was willfully and repeatedly used to disturb the peace of the president. He denied the charges. He was later released on a cash bail of 500000 shillings.
On Monday, the European Union-EU Delegation in Uganda called for a comprehensive investigation into the persistent torture cases and other human rights violations in the country.
