By Max Patrick Ocaido
Uganda’s security intelligence agencies are investigating a ploy by opposition politicians to ‘maliciously’ discredit the country’s security apparatus in the national and international levels.
According to Security minister Gen Elly Tumwine, some politicians are mobilizing individuals to portray Uganda’s security systems as violators of human rights.
“We have got reliable information that some politicians are mobilizing groups of people to discredit security agencies both locally and internationally as violators of human rights. It is the reason the public must take caution while consuming any information especially on social media and other platforms,” Gen Tumwine said.
While appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights on Wednesday to respond to issues of alleged torture of victims by Internal Security organization (ISO) in safe houses, Gen Tumwine told the committee to be careful with some of the information given to them by the alleged victims of torture on ground that some of the information is fabricated and sponsored by politicians to discredit security institutions.
“I am not here to defend mistakes of ISO and indeed we shall verify these allegations and take action. However, it is important to note that most of these complainants have their own interests. Don’t take anything they say as gospel truth. Some of them have high monetary expectations; some of them are sponsored by politicians to tell lies. Some of them tell lies claiming they know who killed so and so but when you confront them they become hostile,” Gen Tumwine said.
Gen Tumwine said that most of the complainants of torture have been linked and charged with several counts of kidnaps, high profile murders and robbery.
Opposition politicians’ propaganda was manifested recently after the death of little known artiste Ziggy Wine with the former propagating lies that the latter was killed by the state for supporting People Power pressure group. The tension was only put to rest after police released empirical reports and video clips confirming that indeed Ziggy Wine died after sustaining severe injuries during a motor accident.
