Lt Gen (retired) Tumukunde will be spending 12 days at Uganda’s Luzira Prison till, March 30th when he will reappear before court.
Today, a frail Tumukunde, appeared before Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Magistrate Court where after treason charges were read to him, the judge ordered that he be remanded in Luzira.
Tumukunde who has been bedridden at Kampala Hospital could not walk easily and was aided by his lawyers and police guards to appear in court.
He was arrested last week on Thursday 12th March, but over the weekend, he reported collapsed and was admitted at Kampala Hospital.
The former Security Minister was arrested last week, after he on March 3rd announced that he wanted to challenge President Museveni, his former Commander in Chief and bush war colleague in the 2021 presidential election.
His troubles, according to police, stem from alleged treasonous utterances in various radio and television interviews last week. On March 12th, a team of security personnel led by Director of Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) Grace Akullo and Elly Womanya the Commandant Police Special Investigations Directorate (SID) arrested him at his Kololo private offices. He was led to the Kibuli, CID Headquarters in Kibuli for a statement and later taken to SID Kireka where he spent the night.
In a subsequent press statement, the Police spokesperson CP Fred Enanga said that Tumukunde’s arrest followed “his utterances in a series of radio and television interviews which seek to foster hatred that might lead to inter-community violence, fomenting and glorifying violence in general.”
He is apparently being charged under 23 (2) band 23 (3) b of the Penal code Act which deals with instigating persons to invade the Republic of Uganda and inciting any persons to make a mutinous assembly.
Tumukunde the soldier and spymaster
Tumukunde was until 4th March 2018 the Minister of National Security in the Cabinet of Uganda, a position he was appointed to on the 6th of June 2016. He is a trained lawyer.
He has previously served as the UPDF’s chief of personnel and administration, chief of military intelligence as well as the commanding officer of the UPDF Fourth Division, based in Gulu in the Northern Region of Uganda.
The bush war hero’s career has also seen him serve as the director-general of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO).
He was also a Member of Parliament representing the Army in the Parliament of Uganda between 1995 and 2005.
