The Chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Mariam Wangadya, has disclosed that the Commission has located only 12 out of the reported 30 missing supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party.
In a report released on Tuesday regarding the 30 missing NUP supporters, Wangadya explained that despite a year-long investigation, they were only able to trace 12 individuals.
The UHRC clarified that the 12 located individuals had been arrested on suspicion of committing various offenses and were subsequently either released on police bond or court bail.
Regarding the remaining 18 missing persons, UHRC made the decision to close their case files due to the NUP’s failure to provide essential information.
Wangadya stated, “It will be futile for us to keep these files open when the people provided to us as the next of kin of these missing persons are not interested in pursuing these cases. Therefore, we have taken the decision to close those files.”
Last year, Lewis Rubongoya, the Secretary General of NUP, had petitioned the Uganda Human Rights Commission to investigate allegations of the abduction of their missing supporters.
However, Wangadya noted that although the NUP secretariat had submitted the names of the victims and their next of kin, they had not provided crucial identification details such as national identification cards, which complicated the investigative process.