Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has confirmed that MPs Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammad Ssegirinya are out of prison, despite not physically meeting them.
The two MPs, who have been on remand at Kigo since September 2021, were granted bail on Monday by Justice Lawrence Tweyanze.
However, their legal team spent almost the entire night at Kigo Prison demanding their release.
“I want to confirm to everybody that the two honorable members of parliament, Allan Ssewanyana, and Muhammad Ssegirinya, were duly discharged after submitting their requirements according to the court order,” said Uganda Prison Service’s spokesperson Frank Baine.
Despite Baine’s claims that the two MPs had been released, their lawyers and respective family members had not seen the MPs.
While appearing on NBS TV this morning, lawyer Erias Lukwago provided an update about the whereabouts of the legislators.
“I spoke to the wife of Hon. Ssewanyana this morning. She drove to Masulita and she confirmed that the Hon. Allan was there and arrangements are being made to take him to a health facility to get treatment,” said Lukwago.
He also confirmed that Ssegirinya had been dropped at his mother’s home in Mengo.
On September 7, 2021, the two legislators were charged with murder before the Masaka Magistrates’ Court.
The charges were in connection with a 2021 spate of killings that occurred in the Greater Masaka region. The killings claimed the lives of 28 people.
The two MPs were later slapped with additional charges of terrorism and abetting terrorism. Since then, the MPs have faced a back-and-forth of bail applications and case hearings.
According to Lukwago, the experience has been a nasty, frustrating, and disgusting journey.
“You only had to keep fighting because it was a matter of life and death. I am short of words to express what we have gone through with the relatives of these legislators. It’s really traumatizing,” he said.
However, Lukwago said that there is certainly no sigh of relief on his part.
“The right of bail right now is in exceptional circumstances, highly exceptional once you are arraigned on political charges.
This Museveni regime has killed this country to the marrow that even for one to get justice in this country, it has to be presumed and imagined that it is some “Big brother” somewhere that has to come and say get out of this place,” he said.
Ssegirinya and Ssewanyana will be reporting to the registrar of the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kampala once a month.