Kampala, Uganda: Buyaga West Member of Parliament, Hon Barnabas Tinkasimire, has been found abandoned in critical condition at Namungoona in Kampala, two days after his abduction by unidentified security operatives.
The MP’s wife, Mrs. Sandra Tinkasimire, confirmed the development on Monday morning that her husband was dumped in Namungoona at around 1:00 a.m., frail and visibly tortured.
“We give glory to God, who has rescued him from his captors,” she said in a brief statement quoted by journalist Adam Almahadi Kungu on X platform.
Tinkasimire, who subscribes to the ruling NRM party, went missing on Saturday, June 28, 2025, with eyewitness accounts and family sources explaining that the outspoken legislator was abducted around 4:00 p.m. while refueling at Rubis Petrol Station opposite Makerere College School in Wandegeya by heavily armed operatives, some reportedly operating drones.
His abduction triggered outrage on social media and legal circles, with some legal practitioners accusing the state of engaging in impunity and arbitrary arrests ahead of heightened political activity related to the 2026 elections.
But Police spokesperson, ACP Michael Rusoke Kituuma, while speaking at a joint security briefing on Monday at Naguru, denied that the legislator was ever in police custody. “As police, I want to clearly state that we do not have Barnabas Tinkasimire in any of our police cells,” Rusoke said. “We are as concerned as the public.”
Rusoke further clarified that while the Uganda Police Force is the primary law enforcement body, other security organs also possess powers of arrest. “Not every detention is carried out by police. Other state agencies have authority under the law.”
Tinkasimire’s mysterious disappearance on Saturday evening triggered public reaction from civic organizations and rights activists, including the Uganda Law Society (ULS), which decried the enforced disappearances that are currently a serious problem in many parts of Uganda.
“Political activists, human rights defenders, relatives of those already disappeared, key witnesses, and lawyers seem to be particular targets. The overwhelming majority of the victims are men who are frequently tortured, or even killed, during incommunicado detention,” ULS Vice President, Mr Asiimwe Anthony, wrote.
At the time of his recovery, it remains unclear who was behind the operation or under what legal mandate it was executed, but social media commentators point to the defence chiefs in the country, attributing his kidnapping to a video in which he appeared throwing jabs at President Museveni and his son Gen Muhoozi Kainrugaba, who is the Chief of Defence Forces.
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