Two newly bailed bodyguards of National Unity Platform -NUP- President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu say prison is harsh, but it is necessary to keep dangerous criminals away from society.
Grace Wakabi alias Smart wa Bobi and Gaddafi Mugumya, who have spent close to two years on remand, were on Thursday granted bail by Masaka High Court Judge Victoria Nakintu Katamba.
They are charged with aggravated robbery, malicious damage to property and assault. Court granted each a cash bail of Shillings 5 million, while their sureties were ordered to execute a non-cash bond of Shillings 50 million each.
Their co-accused, Achileo Kivumbi and Edward Ssebuufu alias Eddie Mutwe, were also granted bail but could not be released as a result of fresh charges before Kawempe Court.
Speaking to journalists at the NUP headquarters in Makerere-Kavule on Friday, Mugumya, who calls himself “General”, said they were jailed on fabricated charges for demanding political change.
Mugumya, a city ghetto youth, described prison as a distressing place characterized by a lot of suffering, he however noted that based on the kind of criminals they interacted with while inside, he realized that prison is very important for genuine criminals, as it protects Ugandans.
He said even if NUP captures power, it would not abolish prisons, but would instead reform them to ensure only genuine criminals, not innocent people, are incarcerated. He decried what he described as a worrying trend of youth turning to crime for survival.
“I was in Masaka prison. One of our friends who used to shave our hair called Lawrence was serving a sentence for robbery. I advised him to stop robbery and he would say he had reformed, but he was lying. Two months after his release, he was shot dead after cutting someone to steal a motorcycle.” Mugumya said.
Mugumya argued that no government, including NUP, should remain in power for more than ten years without a change in leadership. He said for a country to move forward without regressing, leadership must change even under NUP noting that the current regime is now doing what it fought against in 1981.
On his personal life he said his biggest fear while in prison was dying without leaving a child behind, a prayer he says God answered while he was still incarcerated.
“God works in wondrous ways for while I was in prison,” Mugumya narrated. “I was told a woman had come to visit me. At first I said no one could be visiting me. But I went, only to find a woman I didn’t know. She told me her sister had my son. I dismissed her and went back inside. After a few days, she returned with her sister and my son, and the child was my photocopy.”
His colleague Grace Wakabi alias Smart wa Bobi recounted how they were arrested at Lugazi roundabout while travelling with Achileo Kivumbi to Namutumba to visit his father, who had been bedridden for months.
He said they were transferred at night from Lugazi to Kampala Central Police Station where they were interrogated extensively, mainly about their earnings from NUP and Kyagulanyi’s plans at the time.
He said they were later transferred to Masaka Central Police Station, where they were charged with malicious damage to property and assault. Wakabi, said his decision to join the opposition and fight the regime was driven by anger he had brought with him to the city in 2017 after watching the government make repeated promises without fulfilling them.
They however asked other change-loving Ugandans to continue visiting prisons and strengthening those jailed over political issues, a task they said they undertook while inside to encourage inmates who have spent many years in jail.