Gen. Muhoozi, a.k.a. “Baby Doc,” who personally suprvised the torture of Kakwenza and is responsible for the torture and deaths of many Ugandans. Photo: Facebook.
This petition demands that the International Criminal Court (ICC) open an investigation into the torture of PEN International Writer of Courage 2021 Honoree, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, by Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba a senior Ugandan military officer and son of the country’s dictator of 36 years Gen. Yoweri Museveni. He is commander of the army’s land forces.
Uganda has a Papa Doc/Baby Doc arrangement resembling Haiti’s back in the era of the Duvaliers.
Rukirabashaija, who is the author of two books and also a weekly columnist for New York City-based Black Star News, has been arrested and severely tortured by the military regime of Gen. Museveni on three occasions.
Gen. Kainerugaba has in recent years been functioning as Uganda’s deputy dictator. He is being groomed to succeed his father who is officially 77 years old but is believed to be in his 80s.
Gen. Kainerugaba has blood-dripping hands. He was implicated in the abductions, torture, maiming and death of countless Ugandans in the period preceding and after the stolen January 14, 2021 Presidential elections as commander of the notorious Special Forces Command (SFC). Many Ugandans disappeared without a trace. Rukirabashaija is one of the few lucky victims to live to tell their story. It helped that his writing gave him global visibility. Many ordinary Ugandans fare much worse, leaving behind mourning mothers, other relatives and friends.
Rukirabashaija was first arrested and tortured by the Museveni/Muhoozi regime in April 2020 when he wrote a novel called “The Greedy Barbarian” about a corrupt brutal dictator in a fictitious African country. Gen. Museveni saw too much similarity between himself and the main character.
Rukirabashaija was arrested for a second time in September 2021 and tortured after he wrote a second book “Banana Republic–Where Writing Is Treasonous” detailing the torture he endured after his first arrest.
Rukirabashaija third arrest by Ugandan intelligence services occurred on December 28 when several armed men, some in civilian attire and some in uniform broke into his home and dragged him away. He was arrested shortly after his social media posting describing the rotund Gen. Kainerugaba as “obese” and a “curmudgeon.”
Over the next several weeks Rukirabashaija endured the most gruesome torture, allegedly supervised by Gen. Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son. The torture included whippings, punching, and brutal kicking all over his slender body. The most macabre torture was the use of pliers to remove flesh from Rukirabashaija’s foot, legs, thighs, and his back.
According to Rukirabashaija, Gen. Kainerugaba personally confronted him in the dungeon where he was tortured and demanded that he “stop writing” and that in return he would be rewarded with a government job, a house, and a vehicle.
After much International outcry Rukirabashaija was released on bail. Even though he was the victim of torture the regime charged him with nebulous crimes related to posting of “offensive” communications.
When Western diplomats in Uganda–including the U.S. ambassador–saw the ugly scarification on Rukirabashaija’s back from torture supervised by Gen. Kainerugaba, some of them reportedly shed tears.