Human rights defender and journalist Mr Geoffrey Wokulira Ssebaggala has received death threats and information about his possible arrest. Geoffrey Ssebaggala is programme coordinator for the Human Rights Network of Journalists – Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda). HRNJ has provided support to over 7,000 occupants from six villages in Kitumbi, Mubende district, who are resisting eviction from a disputed land. Since May 2009, Geoffrey Ssebaggala has led the efforts to monitor the eviction process, documented alleged abuses committed in the area and helped occupants stop the evictions by legal means.

Further Information

On 22 January 2010, at approximately 9am, Geoffrey Ssebaggala received a phone call in which the caller warned him to cease his activities in relation to the Mubende evictions or he would be killed. When he asked the caller to identify himself, the caller replied that his identity was not important and warned him to beware. On 21 January, Geoffrey Ssebaggala had received a similar anonymous call. He subsequently reported the threats to the Central Police Station in Kampala.

The death threats followed information that Geoffrey Ssebaggala may be arrested. While it remains unclear whether a formal arrest warrant has been issued, it is reported that on 11 December 2009, at a rally on the land dispute, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Minister of Water and Environment, the Minister of States Lands and the Mubende Resident District Commissioner called for Geoffrey Ssebaggala's arrest. On 3 January 2010, a meeting organised at the village of Kyamukasa by its residents to discuss the land dispute was violently dispersed by anti-riot police and soldiers. The soldiers reportedly used tear gas, fired shots into the crowd and arrested several of the residents who were participating in the meeting. It is believed that one of the people arrested was mistakenly identified as Geoffrey Ssebaggala. The man, Mr Livingstone Kawooya, was reportedly beaten while in detention and accused of ”misleading the occupants and frustrating their plans”. One of the other detainees reported hearing soldiers calling the commander to inform him that Geoffrey Ssebaggala had been arrested and ordering a truck to come to transfer him to the barracks.

Following HRNJ intervention in the matter of the Mubende evictions in May 2009, a case was filed by residents before the Nakawa High Court to challenge the unlawful evictions and destruction of properties without any compensation or relocation of the residents. In August 2009, the court issued an interim order restricting any further evictions from the land until 18 March 2010. Namwasa New Forest Company, which is allegedly behind the eviction process, is owned by relatives of Ugandan President Museveni.

Front Line believes that the death threats against Geoffrey Ssebaggala, and the calls by senior government officials for his arrest, are a direct result of his activities in the defence of human rights, in particular his work to defend the rights of the residents of the disputed lands in the Mubende district.