Like many parents whose kids are missing, Nakibuuka says she is now left with listening to news on radio and television waiting for the list of people under detention from government.
December
8th, 2020 will take long to fade from the memory of Solome Nakibuuka, 44, a
resident of Busabala, Wakiso district. It’s the day when her two sons—
23-year-old Denis Matovu and 25 year Richard Sonko—went missing. Nakibuuka says
her sons were cab drivers, with Sonko often chauffeuring money loaded South
Sudanese around Kampala while Matovu was a gig driver, chauffeuring anyone who
wanted a special car hire.
On the day they were kidnapped, Nakibuuka says Matovu left home around 6:00 am,
going to meet his brother Sonko at Lukuli- Nanganda trading center in Makindye,
who had got him an assignment of driving a lawyer for a full day. She did not
communicate with any of them during the day.
At around 7:00 pm, Nakibuuka says
she got a phone call from her sons’ paternal uncle Julius Muyige who was in the
same locality, informing her that he saw Matovu being hand-picked by four men casually-dressed, hurling him into a waiting numberless white Toyota Hiace
vehicle, now notoriously known as the drone.
Muyige told
Nakibuuka that when Sonko ran and started pulling his brother’s hand, he was
equally grabbed and bundled in the vehicle together with Matovu. The family has
never heard of them again. What followed, Nakibuuka says was a frantic
search for the duo that has lasted more than two months. Nakibuuka wept as she
explained how she spent the night awake and went to Katwe Police Station the
following day to report a case. And she says, she has had nightmares about her
missing sons.
//Cue in: Ko nze, drone? …
Cue out: …sente tewali yadde.”//
The search, she says has been costly, with many people coming and telling her,
“give me UGX 100,000 and I got to search here, give me UGX 300,000 and I go to
check in this prison.” Nakibuuka has also hired several vehicles moving from
prison to prison and army bases in search of her sons.
In this search, Nakibuuka says she has spent more than Shillings 8 Million.
There are people; she says who asked for Shillings 5million and Shillings 3
million respectively to help bring her sons back. This is money she didn’t
have.
// Cue in: Oli ajja nakugamba …
Cue out: … nga abaana sibalaba.”
Like many
parents whose kids are missing, Nakibuuka says she is now left with listening
to the news on radio and television waiting for the list of people under detention
from government.
//Cue in: Kati nkubira government…
Cue out:
…abaana babatuwe.”//
The president directed security agencies to release the list. The army handed
over the list to the police. But there has been a pull and push between the two
institutions, with police claiming it cannot account for people it has not
seen.
Benjamin Katana, the lawyer handling this case told URN that he has failed to
locate the two. He says they have not appeared before any court. Katana also
says he filed an application in the high court which he says is yet to be
reviewed.
“Well, they were supporters of Kyagulanyi, but have not
appeared before any court. We hope to locate them when they are still alive,”
he said. Nakibuuka has been dealing in second-hand clothes at Kalungi Complex along
Nakivubo road. She had no choice but to close her business because she spent
all her savings on the search of her missing sons.
Blanshe Musinguzi
Cynthia Ruth Naggayi
Freelancer