WORKING IN FEAR: The head of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) has left the country in shock after revealing that two of the commissioners she is supposed to lead come to meetings armed with guns.
Mariam Wangadya, the UHRC Chairperson, has revealed that she is living and working in fear after she discovered that some of the commissioners are armed and want to come to meetings with their guns. This has thrown her into panic and fear. Wangadya has admitted that she fears calling meetings since she is worried of what these armed commissioners might do to her or any other member of the Commission.
“Some of my members of the Uganda Human Rights Commission have guns, two of them, and I fear to convene meetings with members who are armed,” said the UHRC boss. “That is not to say that I am incapable of doing my work because I am threatened by anybody.”
This is not the first time Wangadya, a former Deputy Inspector General of Government (D-IGG), has complained about threats against her life and work. In February 2022, Wangadya told Fox Odoi’s Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights that she was being bullied and threatened by Ugandans over her sensitive work of calling out human rights violators.
As is the case with these two gun-wielding commissioners, Wangadya was not ready to reveal to the human rights committee the identities of the Ugandans who were bullying and threatening her for doing her work.
Due to Uganda’s violent and turbulent history that had been characterized by arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, torture and brutal repression with impunity on the part of security organs during the pre and post-independence era, UHRC was established to help investigate, at its own initiative or on a complaint made by any person or group of persons against the violation of any human right. But over the years, the Commission has been criticized by the opposition for looking on as government security officers violate human rights.
Meanwhile, UHRC has summoned Uganda Police Force (UPF) Inspector General (IGP) Martins Okoth Ochola to appear before the commission and explain the brutal arrest of opposition-leaning female MPs and the blocking of Women’s Day celebrations.
The UHRC boss is not the first top government official to come out and claim that her life was in danger. Months ago, Speaker of Parliament Anita Annet Among revealed that some people wanted to kill her and that some had been trailing her vehicle. (See Details Here).
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