The National Unity Platform leadership has once again accused security forces of sabotaging their mobilisation campaigns by arresting their area mobilisers.
 
 On Monday, the party leadership paraded their Kasese Mobilizer Samuel Masereka, who claims that he was tortured by security agencies while in detention.
 
 A visibly weak Samuel Masereka was supported by others at the NUP headquarters in Kamwokya. The wounds on both legs tell the pain Masereka went through.
 
According to his account, Masereka has allegedly spent 21 days under detention after his arrest by armed security officers on 7th December 2021 from Kasese.
 
Masereka says that he was first kept at Kilembe hospital before being transferred to what he later realised was the CMI offices in Mbuya. Masereka narrates the pain he went through during this interrogation.

“They caned me on every part..even the private part. They punched me several times and I currently have pain in my chest,” he says.
 
 After questioning during his prolonged detention, Masereka was allegedly assured by his tormentors that no one could save him.
“I told him that he is here because of law and that he should be working according to the law. He said that he had the authority to kill,” Masereka says.
 
Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga says Masereka should officially lodge a complaint to them and the Uganda Human rights commission.

“NUP does not have the investigative powers and the powers to prosecute. They need to come to the police. If they feel that they cannot come to the police, then they need to go to any other agency like the Human Rights Commission and report this case,” Enanga says.

“Wherever he is, I request that he reaches out to any of our offices to be guided on how to lodge a complaint so that investigations can commence,” Ruth Ssekindi the Director Monitoring and Inspections at the Uganda Human Rights Commission says.
 
 During one of his speeches last year, President Museveni cautioned security agencies against torturing suspects.

“That beating can force somebody to admit to a crime when in fact he is not the one,” President Museveni said.

For the NUP administration, such arrests derail the party’s efforts in mobilising for more support from different parts of the country.

“His crime is that he mobilizes for NUP which is a registered political party. We are not a rebel group[ like Mr Museveni was. When we go out there to mobilize and rally for support, this is what happens,” NUP Spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi says.
 
 However, they claim this is more evidence to beef up their evidence in cases opened up locally and internationally against human rights abuses.
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 Since the 2021 elections, several opposition supporters have been arrested with several released after the polls, but with some families claiming some of their members’ are still under custody.