By BigEyeUg Team
News reaching our desk indicates that renowned Ugandan talent manager and political activist Joseph Kalema alias Jose has fled Uganda fearing for his life.
Joseph Kalema alias Jose
According to close friends, Jose a resident of Makindye, Kampala suburb famous for celebrities and other arts enthusiasts abruptly vanished from his friends earlier this week, as he feared being arrested over his involvement and closeness with Bobi Wine’s political activism.
Known for managing and promoting musicians; Sqoop Larma, Phill Mullinz and Maliswene, Manager Jose’s miserable days started in May this year when he traveled with the National Unity Platform(NUP) team led by Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu famously known as Bobi Wine to Omoro District to campaign for their comrade Simon Toolit Akecha in the county’s Member of Parliament by-elections folllowiong the death of Hon. Jacob Oulanya who was the Speaker of Parliament and MP representing the area.
As reported by various media houses, Jose who was part of Bobi Wine’s entourage from Kampala could not proceed with the campaigns as it was anticipated despite making a laborious trip to the northern Uganda district amidst heavy security deployment.
Akecha the NUP candidate was in tight race with son of the Late Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah’s son Mr. Andrew Ojok Oulanyah of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Akecha criticized security for heavy deployment and various arrests which he said were meant to disorganize their campaigns.
“The Government fears NUP for no reason. We are a registered party that is operating legally. I wonder why the Government would deploy as if we are carrying out recruitment of rebels. Roadblocks are everywhere. What insecurity are we causing?” Akecha said.
Consequently, NUP party decried by security operatives for unlawfully arresting several of its campaign members (Jose inclusive), supervisors and polling agents in the Omoro County by-election.
The operation by the security agencies also saw members from other opposition establishments like the Forum for Democratic of Change (FDC) arrested.
David Ongom Mudong, the Aswa River Region Police Spokesperson confirmed that security agencies conducted several operations that led to the arrest of individuals. He however declined to identify those arrested and where they are being detained.
Click link below to watch video of the NUP suuporters arrest in Omoro county.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=police+arrests+NUP+omolo+by-eclection
Mudong said the arrests were conducted at various checkpoints to weed out non-voters in Omoro whom intelligence suspects are plotting to cause chaos.
He noted that the arrests are random and do not target any political party members as alleged by the opposition political party leaders.
“Today is voting day for eligible voters of Omoro County so if you are from Kampala and want to be part of this we see irrelevancy in that. Our intelligence has established that there’s a section of persons who are mobilizing themselves from outside there with ill motives of interfering with this process,” David Ongom Mudong told reporters.
Upon arrest, Jose was transported with colleagues to Kampala where they spent days under detention and later released on Police bonds.
Earlier this month, Jose narrowly survived re-arrest after him and colleagues were supposed to report back to Police as assigned on their release bonds. His colleagues say skipping the bond return date saved him.
Unfortunately, his fellas didn’t escape the fateful day of the Police bond reporting as they were re-arrested and detained at Sentema Prison till date.
After learning about is colleagues’ agitative arrest, Jose decided to flee Uganda as he fears for his life.
This website has been intimated that the underrated music talent manager’s current destination is Nairobi – Kenya.
Jose’s saga adds to a countless of Ugandan citizens who have made-off from their homeland after threats on their lives sparked by political opposition to the government.
One of the most recent famous sagas is of pillory novelist Kankweza Rukirabasaija who also fled Uganda on the same note.
In January, CID Spokesperson Charles Twiine said that Kankweza Rukirabasaija was arrested for insulting President YK Museveni & his son who is also the Commander of the Land Forces of Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces (UPDF), Muhoozi Kainerugaba via his Twitter handle.
Kankweza was charged under the Computer Misuse Act for the use of offensive language and detained under unknown place where he sustained serious injuries all over his body, he revealed to have been out of torture from security forces.
Various Human Rights activists both locally and internationally based have on several occasions condemned the humanity violations by the government of Uganda though it’s still skeptical to measure the effectiveness of the alarm from the organizations.
We will keep you posted