Kampala, Uganda – Tension and public outrage are mounting following the violent abduction of Hon. Barnabas Tinkasiimire, the Member of Parliament for Buyaga West Constituency, who was reportedly picked up yesterday evening under mysterious and brutal circumstances.
According to reports from his legal team and family, Hon. Tinkasiimire was forcefully taken at around 5:00 PM from Rubis petrol station in Makerere by a group of more than ten armed men traveling in a drone van—a vehicle now widely associated with illegal state-sanctioned abductions in Uganda. Witnesses describe the abduction as extremely violent and terrifying.
Despite being a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), Hon. Tinkasiimire has recently become an outspoken critic of the increasingly autocratic tendencies of President Museveni’s regime. He has particularly taken a hardline stance against what he calls an orchestrated campaign to install Museveni’s son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as Uganda’s next president — a move many Ugandans fear will deepen repression and destroy any remnants of democracy.
Held Incommunicado, Family Fears Torture
Since his abduction, Tinkasiimire’s whereabouts remain unknown, and efforts by his family to trace him have proved futile. They now fear he is being tortured, joining a long list of opposition figures, activists, and now even regime insiders, who have been abducted and detained without trial.
“Although he has often criticized our struggle, Tinkasiimire has also condemned misrule and bad governance. He has taken bold stands where many feared to speak. It is now clear that no one is safe — not even those from within the regime,” one human rights advocate stated.
A Sinking Boat: Warnings Ignored
Opposition voices and civil society organizations have condemned the abduction and called for his immediate release. Many pointed out the irony of his ordeal, given that Tinkasiimire was part of a political establishment that recently supported the controversial UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Forces) Amendment Bill, which significantly increased the military’s domestic power.
“We warned them,” a vocal activist wrote online. “We told the greedy, selfish, and thoughtless NRM MPs that they were legislating their own repression into law. Now the very system they empowered is consuming them. In a sinking boat, no one is safe.”
Mounting Pressure and the Call to #FreeUganda
Social media platforms have erupted with hashtags like #FreeTinkasiimire, #StopAbductions, and #FreeUganda, with citizens and diaspora communities demanding transparency, accountability, and justice.
The incident adds to a growing list of enforced disappearances in Uganda, where dozens have been abducted by security operatives, only to be found tortured, maimed, or left with lasting psychological trauma — some never return.
If Hon. Tinkasiimire, an insider of the political elite, can be treated with such disregard for the rule of law, activists warn that Uganda is slipping further into the clutches of a police state where dissent is criminalized, and power is consolidated through terror.
As the world watches, Uganda’s government faces renewed pressure to account for its actions and release all those held in illegal detention. For now, the fate of Hon. Tinkasiimire remains uncertain, but one thing is clear — the culture of abductions has become a threat not only to the opposition but to the soul of the nation itself.
