Missing Uganda opposition aide appears in video after a year

A video has emerged of an emaciated former aide to one of Uganda’s leading opposition figures months after he vanished, with his family and activists on Tuesday alleging state involvement.

Sam Mugumya, 47, was a prominent aide to opposition politician Kizza Besigye — abducted in Kenya two years ago, and currently hospitalised awaiting trial — and was running as a candidate for Besigye’s party.

But in August 2025 local media reported Mugumya had been taken by men linked to the security forces, and nothing was heard from him until late July when a video of him, visibly emaciated and seated next to a walker, circulated on social media.

The video surfaced as international observers have expressed concerns about a growing crackdown on opposition figures and activists.

“I only saw video showing him destroyed and bony,” his mother, Edinansi Katungwesi, told AFP by telephone, confirming his identity.

“Since he was kidnapped months ago, I don’t know anything about him or what is happening to him,” she said, adding: “It is the government that took my son and I am so angry at them.”

“The government is meant to protect us and has turned against us, and worse of all against my son.”

AFP has not been able to verify who recorded the video, when it was shot, or where it was filmed.

The army declined to comment when contacted, but a source directed AFP to previous remarks by the defence ministry which in September 2025 denied that Mugumya was in custody.

Activist Agather Atuhaire told AFP she believed it was Mugumya, describing his situation as “appalling and shocking”.

“I think the military is responsible for his disappearance, detention incommunicado,” she said.

“I am so angry and alarmed that we are letting impunity in our country get worse and worse,” she added.

The Uganda Law Society has filed a petition for his release.

“If he’s being suspected of committing an offence, let him be produced in court and answer the charges,” society vice-president Anthony Asiimwe said.

“We cannot continue allowing this kind of lawlessness to take place in this country,” he said.

Uganda re-elected President Yoweri Museveni for the seventh time in January, and activists and opposition politicians have warned of an increasingly hostile environment.

AFP