24 hours later, opposition leader Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi is yet to excitingly inform the world about the release of party MPs who have been incarcerated for close to two years.
Yet Mr Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine had been vocal, mounting pressure on government to free the legislators accused of masterminding terror in greater Masaka, Central Uganda.
Prosecution claimed Mohammad Ssegirinya (Kawempe North MP) and Allan Ssewanyana (Makindye West) championed the killing of unarmed civilians in Masaka while funding a terror squad commonly identified as Bijambiya.
The MP’s efforts to secure bail were thwarted by the State, with President Museveni openly regarding to the MPs as terrorists.
Highly placed security officials had revealed that, they obtained incriminating evidence through intelligence that Ssegirinya and his colleague were behind the financing of the terror group.
Last year, they were rearrested when Masaka High Court granted them bail, until yesterday, their efforts to secure bail again had hit a dead end.
But on the morning of 13th February, the Masaka Court heard that prosecution had withdrawn it’s objection for bail giving hope to MPs’ families and relatives that they could walk to freedom.
In the afternoon, Court freed them on shs 20 million cash bail.
Their party president, who uses social media platforms to fight injustice is yet to welcome them home. Why?
Interviewed on Monday evening, a senior party official said NUP administration was not involved in a deal with the State to see the two lawmakers out of jail.
He said that if there were efforts of securing their freedom then, “they could have made the deal personally.”
Mr Kyagulanyi was neither present in Court nor at Kigo Prison to welcome his diehards from prison.
Officials of party who spoke on condition of anonymity say their release was greatly pushed by the Leader of Opposition Hon Mathias Mpuuga, who however, faces stern resistance from NUP top brass on allegations of collaborating with the State.
In fact, he is likely to be replaced by the party as NUP sits to review it’s performance in Parliament.
About Ssewanyana and Ssegirinya, Bobi Wine was kept in the dark
Sources reveal that Mpuuga has actively been involved in the secret talks but reportedly without the direct blessing or endorsement of his party’s top leadership.
But he downplayed this narrative saying, “we have been through normal court proceedings and processes. Nothing to credit me personally. The multiplicity of court appearances and [bail] applications by several attorneys, each making their humble contribution, delivered the collective good,” he noted.
He added: “I congratulate the legal team for the tireless endeavors.
Despite the official denial, the role of Mr Mpuuga in the talks manifested in public when it emerged that he had attended a closed-door meeting that Mr Tayebwa convened with security and intelligence chiefs. The fate of the incarcerated lawmakers and other NUP supporters was a top agendum, multiple sources said.
Present at the meeting was Ms Nabbanja. Sources who attended have told this newspaper that the meeting exhorted state security actors to adhere to the rule of law in doing their work so as not to smudge the reputation of government.
For instance, security officials were tasked to explain how civilians, in this case more than two dozen supporters of NUP, were being court-martialed for spreading harmful propaganda when they are not members of the armed forces or subject to military law unless found in possession of government stores.
It was also observed that civilian leaders do not intend to interfere with the work of security and Ugandans caught on the wrong side of the law should be made to account, but such actions should be based on incriminating evidence and conducted according to provisions of the Constitution and subsidiary laws of the country.
As a result, one source that attended the meeting and another briefed on the deliberations, told this publication that it was agreed at the right time to have the military court discharge the NUP supporters so that they may be tried in civilian courts if there will be evidence pinning them.
Both Speaker Among and Deputy Speaker Tayebwa were unavailable to comment on the matter.
However, Mr Chris Obore, the director for communications and public affairs at Parliament, said whereas he was unaware of the referenced meetings, “from the word go, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker have been engaging with [the] government on the matter of the two MPs (Ssewanyana and Ssegirinya)”.
“The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker chose negotiations instead of pandering to the public gallery,” he said, adding, “There were issues that the state had against the MPs and the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker said the issues were legitimate, but it shouldn’t [be handled in a way that] gives the Opposition a propaganda advantage.”
He did not divulge the details, but this newspaper had been separately informed that it related to money trails linking the duo to subversive elements abroad.
Mr Obore confirmed that the Parliament leadership had regularly been in touch with families of the two MPs, helping out when needed and ensuring their emoluments were paid timely.
This publication has learnt that there was a scare within government when MP Ssegirinya’s condition deteriorated and he was in January booked at Mulago National Referral Hospital. A high-powered delegation led by Deputy Speaker Tayebwa reached out to him with speed, assured him all would be well and encouraged him to comply with medication.
Whereas yesterday’s grant of bail, at Shs20m each, to the lawmakers after their 17 months’ incarceration should have been good news worth celebrations at NUP headquarters in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb, insiders said it was not. Instead, it left officials suspicious and grumbling about what their members may have conceded in negotiations to secure their freedom, and whether such concession may turn harmful to some of them in future.
We were unable to reach Bobi Wine, who was reportedly in the dark about the deal-making, and he noticeably had by 10:20pm (several hours after the bail grant) not posted anything about it on his social media pages despite having been vocal in the past in demanding they be set free.
Instead, his last twitter update seven hours before we went to press was about a NUP supporter named Eric Mwesigwa whom he said had been held incommunicado and tortured for a fortnight.
In the tweet accompanied with photographs that appeared to show hot flat iron burns on Mwesigwa’s breasts, the NUP principal noted that: “They abducted him and tortured him, asking what Bobi Wine and NUP are planning to do to ‘overthrow the government.”
Additional reporting by Daily Monitor
