“When you are in a hole as a country, stop digging”

COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | In November 2022, the doyens of Uganda’s long-suffering scuttled opposition surprised us by coming together in a rare show of unity to highlight growing human rights violations and state repression in Uganda.

Highlighting the state of dissent, the opposition held the Uganda Human Rights Accountability Conference (UHRAC) in Kenya in collaboration with the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). KHRC lent its bold and unapologetic voice to the victims of state repression in Uganda.

Through its social media account on X, KHRC stated, “The conference (UHRAC) coincides with the commemoration of the two days in November 2020 when Ugandan security unleashed unprecedented violence on young protestors killing over 100 young people.”

In this column, in a November 2022 article titled, ‘Why did Uganda opposition take our human rights issues to Kenya?’, I illuminated a few human rights cases that took centre stage at the conference.

One of the examples I cited was the jarring case of a young woman with a particularly ‘unUgandan’ name: Alexandreos Marinos. In media interviews in May 2022, Marinos bared her bruised and scarred buttocks online. She revealed that UPDF soldiers abducted her in March and held her in military detention for two days, and accused her captors of torturing and sexually assaulting her. Her crime?

“Playing the music of musician and opposition leader Bobi Wine in the confines of her home near the army headquarters.”

As if the flimsy nature of her ‘crime’ was not bad enough, worse were the sentiments from some online commenters who blamed Marinos for being so foolish as to play such ‘bad’ music in the vicinity of the headquarters of the valiant UPDF.

In the article I wrote, “When we attack victims for being attacked, we thoughtlessly excuse the violence of their attackers and invite impunity to move in. We only deceive ourselves when we lay low, sleep our uncomfortable sleep, keep our questioning heads down, and quiet our dissenting voices. Grateful for our impassivity, impunity rides gloatingly on the backs of self-deceit.”

Dear reader, Alexandreos Marinos is no more- on August 17, she succumbed to the ravages of her torture and sexual assault. Impunity has felled Marinos. In widely shared pictures from NUP social media accounts, Marinos is shown on a hospital bed, reduced to nearly skin and bones.

Juxtaposed with the hospital picture is another picture- Marinos brimming confidently with life, vibrant in the bright red NUP overalls. In other videos, Marinos appeals to the Uganda Human Rights Commission to fight for her, ordinary Ugandans like her, whose only claim to access and power is the rights bestowed by citizenry.

Her voice wavers, but she is resolute, “When you speak, you die. When you stay silent, you die.”

Indeed, Marinos’ short life is a cautionary tale- dissent is deadly when the incumbent regime is hell-bent on staying in power by any means necessary. Amid news of Marinos’ death and the tribulations that preceded her death, life continues unabated.

In another corner of social media, the August 7 death of Kigezi businessman and opposition stalwart James Musinguzi Garuga, is trending. Moving tributes from his family and friends speak of a giant of a man- generous, honest, bold, hilarious, and unashamedly patriotic.

Eulogising her husband, Mrs. Musinguzi, recounts how they tried unsuccessfully to secure a UK visa that would have seen him access quality life-saving healthcare. His family called in favours near and far. When the visa was finally granted two months later, precious time had been lost- Garuga was at death’s door.

If a wealthy and prominent personality like Garuga could not get that visa, yet he had the means to afford private healthcare abroad, what is the hope for ordinary Ugandans? She appeals to the government to restore the dignity of Ugandans- that we do not have to beat petitionary footpaths to ‘outside countries’ begging them to provide quality services that our country cannot.

Her well-stated ask is not too much- a Uganda that works for every Ugandan. Dear reader, the despair and apathy among Ugandans is palpable- even more tangible with the 2026 elections upon us.

It appears that lying low like and sleeping that sleep the liberators brought will not keep us safe from the twin offerings of the incumbent regime: impunity and mediocrity. If impunity misses you, mediocrity will not.

To our gilded political class perched high on the loftiest perches of Uganda, shielded from the daily vagaries of ordinary Ugandans, imbibe the words of renowned Kenyan activist, speaker, and legal scholar Professor PLO Lumumba, “When you are in a hole as a country, stop digging.”

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Olivia Nalubwama is a “tayaad Muzukulu, tired of mediocrity and impunity” smugmountain@gmail.com

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE OBSERVER