Journalist Remmy Bahati Relatives Kidnap: Fresh Details Emerge; UPDF Breaks Silence

A few more details are slowly emerging on the alleged kidnap of a brother to former NBS TV reporter Remmy Bahati. 

Named Kelvin, Bahati’s brother was picked from the family home in Fort Portal City, about 295 kilometers from the capital Kampala.

Kelvin was ‘kidnapped’ alongside his cousin and friend. The ‘kidnappers’ were said to be armed and in plain clothes.

Bahati’s family say their members were ‘abducted’ and that their whereabouts remain unknown, raising questions on their safety.

Bahati and anti-government commentators believe that the state operatives could be behind the ‘kidnapping’ over the former NBS TV reporter’s tweets on the disappearance of supporters of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, a 2021 presidential candidate and president of the main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP).

According to Bahati, who currently lives in the United States of America, the operatives who raided their home in Fort Portal Municipality wanted to ‘abduct’ her father who is aged 76 but he was not at home when they came, hence taking Kelvin, his cousin and friend.

The motive of the raid and the ‘abductions’ remains unknown but such abductions in vehicles known as drones have been linked to politics.

It is also said that the raiders were looking for a gun or guns that the ‘arrested’ were said to have been in possession of.

When Bahati first raised the matter via micro blogging site Twitter, Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye, the spokesperson of the Defence Ministry and the national army, the UPDF, responded with a short message on the probe into the allegations raised by the former NBS TV reporter.

“We are investigating this,” wrote Brig Gen Kulayigye.

In one of his communications on social media, the spokesperson of the UPDF also talked of a one Allan who had been masquerading as an officer of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

“Last evening, the Flying Squad arrested a one Allan who has been masquerading as a soldier. The police had an arrest warrant and sought support from Mountain Division Headquarters. He is being held at Fort Portal Central Police Station,” wrote Brig Gen Kulayigye.

Some people who had been concerned about the ‘abduction’ of Bahati’s relatives thought that Allan was the former NBS TV reporter’s brother.

But Bahati quickly confirmed that Allan was not the person they were looking for and that their family in Fort Portal City did not know the Allan arrested by the Flying Squad.

“Thank you all for your concerns! My brother was abducted alongside two others by armed men in a numberless drone and their location is still unknown to us,” she wrote. 

“A one Allan the UPDF Spokesperson has tweeted about is not my family member and I don’t know him.”

She added: “My family members are still missing and these were abducted by armed security operatives in a drone. My Dad has been going from one police station to the other looking for them but no luck. I demand to know the whereabouts of my brother, cousin and friend identified as Abala.”

Hours after Brig Gen Kulayigye said the army was probing the alleged kidnap of three people from Bahati’s home in Fort Portal City, the journalist, who is also a graduate of Columbia University, has said that no update has been given to the family or the nation on the missing relatives.

But Bahati said she had received information that her relatives had been ‘abducted’ by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

“Hi UPDF Spokesperson, yesterday you said you were investigating the abduction of my brother, cousin and their friend. Information I have from CMI is that you are illegally keeping them at unknown location. When will this impunity and unlawful detentions end? Free my family,” she said. 

Read more about the ‘kidnapping’ of Remmy Bahati’s relatives Here.

It should also be remembered that Bobi Wine has released a list of his supporters who have been missing since 2019, and for whom it is not clear if they are dead or alive. (Read Story Here).

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