There are no abductions in Uganda but simply arrests of criminals, says Minister Margaret Muhanga

While asked by the media about the ongoing ‘abductions’, especially among opposition supporters, State Minister for Primary Health Care Hon Magarate Muhanga said that there is nothing like any abductions in this country because any arrests made by security forces are intelligence-led and thus whoever is arrested is a criminal.

According to Muhanga, everyone who is arrested is known, and depending on the nature of the criminal, the method of arrest may differ but this does not mean they are abducted.

Muhanga adds that the government has a list of all people who are in their custody but security agencies cannot come out to publicize which criminal did what as it interferes with further investigation.

” You cannot say people are abducted when the government has a list of all those that were arrested. The word abduction is used by politicians from the opposition to fatten the matter to look as if security is randomly picking up people which ain’t the case.” She said

The Minister who happens to be a sister to known veteran journalist Andrew M. Mwenda and commander Land Forcers Gen Kayanja Muhanga also added that no person is arrested randomly but rather security forces do enough ground investigation before netting anybody and thus whoever is arrested is a criminal or a suspect linked to a criminal who may have some additional information to help in the investigation.

There have been rampant arrests of individuals by security forces across the county with opposition leaders claiming that government is witch-hunting all people who do not support it.