Makindye Grade One Magistrates Court has ordered for the immediate release of Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija.
Mr Charles Twiine, the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) Spokesperson said the Kakwenza Rukirabashaija will be arraigned before Court for allegedly insulting President Kaguta Museveni and the first son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
By press time, the detainee had not been produced in any court and this prompted his lawyers led by Kiiza Eron, Luyimbazi Nalukoola and Wanda Samuel to petition court calling for immediate release of their client.
Appearing before Court, Magistrate Irene Nambatya, ordered for unconditional release of Kakwenza from police custody. “Every police officer should comply with the above orders,” she ruled.
Kakwenza was arrested at Kisasi after a three days twitter feud with supporters of UPDF Land forces commander Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Kakwenza averred that Muhoozi’s supporters were allegedly bullying him for criticizing President Museveni’s government.
“Good morning Muhoozi bum-lickers. Dare attempt to bully me again and I show you fire. I have more verbal artillery in my toolkit to bludgeon your empty heads and dirty mouths that spews hocus-pocus and balderdash. You’re all bankrolled chamchas! Nonsense just,” Kakwenza said on twitter.
“Imagine you steal money from the national purse and use it to bankroll idle idiots on social media to market your presidential ambitions when you are intellectually bankrupt. These Muhoozi project fools think that we shall replace a thief with an incompetent pig-headed curmudgeon,” Kakwenza said in one of the tweets.
Rukirabashaija is the author of the novel The Greedy Barbarian, which takes on themes of high-level corruption in a fictional country. He was arrested on 13 April 2020 in Uganda, and held for seven days, during which time he was interrogated about his fiction and subjected to torture and later released. Rukirabashaija details this treatment in his latest work Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous.
