Bukomansimbi, Uganda: An exclusive investigation by DailyExpress has unearthed fresh details exposing how Lwere Rashid, a grassroots mobilizer affiliated with the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), was abducted at gunpoint, subjected to brutal torture, and ultimately forced to flee Uganda to save his life.
Lwere, who had been mobilising supporters under Dr. Kizza Besigye’s leadership, described how his persecution began on the evening of January 3, 2023. While driving through Butenga town centre in Bukomansimbi District, returning from Sembabule, he says a speeding vehicle suddenly blocked his path.
“Three armed men in plain clothes jumped out, pointing their guns straight at me,” he recounted in narration of his ordeal. “They ordered me to open the door and put my hands on my head. In that moment, I knew something terrible was about to happen.”
Witnesses present at the time of Lwere’s abduction told DailyExpress that they saw an unmarked vehicle pull across the road and force a small saloon car to a halt, before the men dragged Rashid out and sped away.
The victim claims he was blindfolded and driven for hours to an undisclosed location. There, he was subjected to repeated beatings, suffocation, and demands to confess to crimes he insists he never committed.
“They kept yelling: ‘Where are the guns? Who is your commander? Who is funding your activities?” he said. “They accused me of recruiting young people to fight the government, but I was just a political mobiliser.”
For three nights, Lwere says, he remained captive. He described how his captors would tie his hands, cover his face with a cloth, and pour water over him until he felt he would drown.
“There were moments I thought my heart would stop,” he said. “When they were not suffocating me, they were punching me or threatening me with machetes.”
By the third night, Lwere believed he would not make it out alive. But in the early hours, he was blindfolded again, forced into their vehicle, and driven deep into the night. “They stopped in a swampy place,” he recalled. “They told me not to lift my head. I heard the engine fade away, and it was silent except for the frogs.”
Hours later, bruised and disoriented, Rashid managed to pull the cloth from his face and recognised he had been dumped near Kawoko-Kato. He walked for miles in pain and exhaustion before reaching Kisaabwa village, where his sister lives.
“When she opened the door and saw me, dirty, bleeding, barely conscious—she thought I was dead,” Rashid said.
Fearing for his life and the safety of his family, Lwere contacted by a friend with connections in government security. The advice was blunt: leave Uganda immediately. “He told me the men would come back,” he said. “Staying meant waiting to disappear again, maybe forever.”
Within weeks, Lwere arranged to relocate his family to a safer area and fled the country secretly. He is now in Europe, where he has applied for asylum on grounds of political persecution and credible threats to his life.
Rights Bodies speak out
Human rights organisations in the East African circuit, including Chapter Four Uganda and the Uganda Human Rights Network (HURINET-U), condemned Lwere’s abduction, saying his experience fits a clear pattern of enforced disappearances targeting political opposition.
“The torture methods described, blindfolding, water suffocation, relentless beatings, are consistent with tactics reported by other abducted activists,” said Mr. Robert Kirumira, a civic rights advocate who has documented similar cases.
Ugandan authorities have consistently denied any systematic policy of targeting opposition supporters, attributing such incidents to criminal gangs. However, rights groups say the lack of investigations into cases like Rashid’s raises troubling questions.
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