News Vision journalist Charles Etukuri who was kidnapped and incarcerated by Internal Security Organisation (ISO) has finally narrated his ordeal.
After spending 6 days in detention in a safe house in Kyengera, Wakiso district reportedly owned by ISO, Etukuri was released Monday.
Arrest
On Tuesday last week, as he planned to drive off to pick his daughter from school and have lunch, mean looking men in military gear locked his car and told him he was under arrest.
“They handcuffed me, pushed me into their waiting car and blindfolded me. They then drove around for about one hour, before dumping me in a garage. They removed the blindfold but left me handcuffed,” Etukuri is quoted as narrating to his fellow staff in the newsroom after his release.
He would later be informed that his arrest is connection to an article published previously about the mysterious demise of a Finnish National in Pearl of Africa Hotel, in Kampala.
The operatives demanded he reveals his source since he had authored the ‘damning’ article.
The story alleged that ISO could have had a hand in the death of this European.
“They believed I was deeply involved in the matter and that I had closely worked with the killers. That I knew much more than what I had written,” Etukuri said.
Safe House
After the interrogation, Etukuri was given a mattress, allocated a room and given a phone to call his editors and family to tell them he was safe. He was held in a safe house in Kyengera, a town in Wakiso district.
He was then served posho (maize meal) and beans. After eating, he developed a running stomach, and spent the whole night making trips to the toilet located within the safe house.
During his stay in the house, Etukuri said he was able to meet some of the people held hostage in the house. On Thursday morning, he was abused by some of the guards after he refused to eat breakfast: tea and bread. His phone was also seized by the operatives.
Etukuri narrated that he would wash his clothes at night and wear them in the morning, every day, for the time he spent in the detention facility. On Friday, he was allowed to buy his own food from outside the house and to read newspapers.
On Sunday, he was driven to State House, Nakasero, where he met five senior ISO officers. He stayed there till 10:00pm and the director general ordered he be taken back to the safe house.
“As we were heading to the place, I realised we were in Kyengera,” he said.
On Monday, Etukuri was driven to the director general’s location at Nakasero and they had a chat.
“He told me two ISO officers had been detained at Mbuya. Faridah Naggayi, the girlfriend to the dead foreigner, and her brother Musa Didi, had also been arrested and detained,” he said.
Adapted from the New Vision
