Thugs kidnap, torture journalist in the name of police
Last month, November 4th, 2021 a group of about 7 people in plain clothes kidnapped a journalist, Pidson Kareire, the Managing Editor of The Drone Media, who they tortured for a week before they arraigned him to Buganda Road Court.
He was charged with Offensive Communication and Criminal Libel. Yet in the normal procedure, police is supposed to summon a suspect of defamation or offensive communication after a file has been opened and a thorough investigation incriminating him or her carried out.
However, this was not the case. A group of security operatives who did not identify themselves; only operating on flimsy schemes contrary to Uganda’s law; kidnapped the journalist; claiming he had defamed Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among.
The truth is, The Drone Media, which the journalist; Pidson Kareire edits had published a dossier/intelligence notes, which a whistle blower circulated to all social media handles and served to the Inspector General of Government (IGG).
Surprisingly, the Leading Daily/The New Vision also published the same document, but the mafia agents opted to torture the individual journalist.
The dossier highlighted about 14 corruption scandals, which involved Deputy Speaker of Parliament; Anita Among. Instead of summoning the journalist, the law abusers kidnapped him and tortured him for a week.
Eventually, when Human Rights Network for Journalists -Uganda (HRNJ-U) pressured them; they arraigned the journalist to Buganda Road Court very late in the evening.
The complainant is supposed to be a defender of human rights, but she has turned to be a ring leader of the abusers of human rights, according to investigations done towards the torture of the journalist.
Secondly, police officers did not investigate the matter, but opted to torture the journalist. They confiscated laptops and phones, and went ahead to torture the journalist. They acted as court and magistrate, yet they were required to investigate the matter. So after their ruling that the journalist was guilty; they tortured him, but why arraign him to court?
Meanwhile, The Drone Media has learnt that the officers who kidnapped Francis Matovu aka Butto; another victim of torture alongside the journalist; stole about $2.7m (sh100m), which was in his car, where his sh35m virtual phone was. They have the sh35m phone, which they declared but have not declared the money.