Kabale Parents Cry to Museveni for help Over Missing Son

Story By Naboth Isaac Niwagaba

apearlnews.com

Parents of Derrick Muhereza Kateeba who was reportedly abducted last week by security officers dressed in Civilian attire have cried to President Museveni for help.

Muhereza 25, is a former Entertainment Minister at Bishop Barham College of Uganda Christian University. Muhereza is also a freelance journalist and a businessman dealing in Irish Potatoes. He was allegedly picked by plain-clothed men who identified themselves as security officers before they forced him into a Toyota Premio and drove off from a certain fuel station in Kireka Banda, Kampala.

Muhereza’s elder sister Sandra Kiconco Orikiriza told apearlnews.com that she was notified by a cousin brother only identified as Tayebwa, that Muhereza was abducted on Wednesday at around 5:00 pm in Kampala. According to Ms. Orikiriza, the abductors allowed him to first give the keys to his cousin brother’s house to a security officer at the Petro station and communicated that they were taking him to Wandegeya.

Since then, the relatives led by his elder brother Bauman Baguma and their uncles in Kampala have tried to search for him in vain.

While addressing the press at their home today in Rushambya, Kirigime Ward, Southern Division, Kabale Municipality, Mr. Charles Kateeba, and his Wife Alice Kateeba said they suspected their son could have been abducted on political grounds.  Muhereza participated actively in the last Parliamentary and LC.5 Chairperson elections for Rukiga District.

However, Mr. Kateeba said his son had no criminal record and therefore it was most unlikely that he could be arrested on charges that require him to be incarcerated beyond 48 hours. Kateeba pleaded to President Museveni for help since all the Police stations in Kampala have denied knowledge of his son’s arrest.

Charles and Alice Kateeba

 Ndyomugyenyi Bish is the latest to join the unsuccessful search for Muhereza whose disappearance has been the talk of Kabale town for the last five days.

On his Facebook page, Hon. Ndyomugyenyi posted that their search for Derrick had been hampered by Police officers who are only denying the arrest of Muhereza without providing any way forward.

“All Police officers kept tossing us from the police station to the Police station. No one has talked or heard from him for a week,” reads part of the Facebook post.

The former Vice Chairperson Rukiga District Micheal Kwarikunda Mbareeba has also petitioned Police Political Commissar Asan Kasingye through a Facebook post, in which he seeks to find out the whereabout of Muhereza so that relatives and friends can take food for him in case he is in any detention facility.

 Despite being tagged in the post, AIGP Kasigye had not yet replied to Mbareeba’s request by the time of filing this report.

Muhereza’s brother-in-law Mr. Medard Kiconco Bamwoya, an assistant Academic Registrar at National Teachers College – NTC, Kabale says they tried to file a case of a missing person at Kabale Police Station last week, but they were told that the case must be filed in Kampala where Muhereza was reportedly abducted from. Bamwoya said that their hope to find Muhereza alive was dwindling down every day and he also requested President Museveni to intervene in the matter.

Meanwhile, this reporter talked to the Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga who in turn referred him to Luke Owoyesigyire, the Deputy Police Spokesperson Kampala Metropolitan area. Mr. Owoyesigyire asked the relatives to register a case of a missing person at any Police station so that he can be able to trace whoever arrested Muhereza.

Bamwoya however says that the disappearance case has already been filed at Wandegeya Police Station under file number SD2/17/08/2021.