Exiled in Kenya, Controversial Ugandan Activist Continues to Speak Out
As a child, Stella Nyanzi’s parents fled from then-Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada in the 1970s, forcing her to live in Kenya as a refugee for five years. Today, she finds herself in the same predicament, seeking refuge as an adult.
“I’ve come full circle,” the opposition candidate told VOA from Kenya, where she is seeking political asylum. “I am fleeing from another dictator in Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, and I came with my teenage children.”
Violence-marred campaign
Nyanzi, a government opponent, researcher and writer, fled Uganda this month after Museveni won a sixth term as president in a violence-marred campaign that has opponents contesting the results. She ran unsuccessfully for a Parliament seat and left after her partner, David Musiri, was abducted on January 20 and allegedly tortured by government forces a week after the national elections in Uganda.
“His genitalia were squeezed. His body was brutalized. And by the time he was dumped from the detention facility that’s unmarked into a police station, he was unconscious,” Nyanzi told VOA.
VOA reached out to Ugandan authorities for comment and did not receive a response.
Roland Ebole, a regional researcher at Amnesty International, told VOA that Musiri was among numerous opposition members who were rounded up and suffered physical harm.
“He claimed to [his] family he was tortured and held incommunicado for several days (no one is sure how many) before people found out where he had been sent for detention. He has not yet been released,” Ebole said in an email response to VOA.
Source:https://www.voanews.com/africa/exiled-kenya-controversial-ugandan-activist-continues-speak-out
As a child, Stella Nyanzi’s parents fled from then-Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada in the 1970s, forcing her to live in Kenya as a refugee for five years. Today, she finds herself in the same predicament, seeking refuge as an adult.
“I’ve come full circle,” the opposition candidate told VOA from Kenya, where she is seeking political asylum. “I am fleeing from another dictator in Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, and I came with my teenage children.”
Violence-marred campaign
Nyanzi, a government opponent, researcher and writer, fled Uganda this month after Museveni won a sixth term as president in a violence-marred campaign that has opponents contesting the results. She ran unsuccessfully for a Parliament seat and left after her partner, David Musiri, was abducted on January 20 and allegedly tortured by government forces a week after the national elections in Uganda.
“His genitalia were squeezed. His body was brutalized. And by the time he was dumped from the detention facility that’s unmarked into a police station, he was unconscious,” Nyanzi told VOA.
VOA reached out to Ugandan authorities for comment and did not receive a response.
Roland Ebole, a regional researcher at Amnesty International, told VOA that Musiri was among numerous opposition members who were rounded up and suffered physical harm.
“He claimed to [his] family he was tortured and held incommunicado for several days (no one is sure how many) before people found out where he had been sent for detention. He has not yet been released,” Ebole said in an email response to VOA.
Source:https://www.voanews.com/africa/exiled-kenya-controversial-ugandan-activist-continues-speak-out