Missing Uganda opposition aide appears in video after a year

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A video has emerged of an emaciated former aide to one of Uganda’s leading opposition figures months after he vanished, with his family and activists on Tuesday alleging state involvement.

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Sam Mugumya, 47, was a prominent aide to opposition politician Kizza Besigye — abducted in Kenya two years ago, and currently hospitalised awaiting trial — and was running as a candidate for Besigye’s party.

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But in August 2025 local media reported Mugumya had been taken by men linked to the security forces, and nothing was heard from him until late July when a video of him, visibly emaciated and seated next to a walker, circulated on social media.

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The video surfaced as international observers have expressed concerns about a growing crackdown on opposition figures and activists.

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“I only saw video showing him destroyed and bony,” his mother, Edinansi Katungwesi, told AFP by telephone, confirming his identity.

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“Since he was kidnapped months ago, I don’t know anything about him or what is happening to him,” she said, adding: “It is the government that took my son and I am so angry at them.”

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“The government is meant to protect us and has turned against us, and worse of all against my son.”

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AFP has not been able to verify who recorded the video, when it was shot, or where it was filmed.

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The army declined to comment when contacted, but a source directed AFP to previous remarks by the defence ministry which in September 2025 denied that Mugumya was in custody.

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Activist Agather Atuhaire told AFP she believed it was Mugumya, describing his situation as “appalling and shocking”.

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“I think the military is responsible for his disappearance, detention incommunicado,” she said.

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“I am so angry and alarmed that we are letting impunity in our country get worse and worse,” she added.

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The Uganda Law Society has filed a petition for his release.

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“If he’s being suspected of committing an offence, let him be produced in court and answer the charges,” society vice-president Anthony Asiimwe said.

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“We cannot continue allowing this kind of lawlessness to take place in this country,” he said.

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Uganda re-elected President Yoweri Museveni for the seventh time in January, and activists and opposition politicians have warned of an increasingly hostile environment.

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AFP

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