KAMPALA – Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake has said government agents followed him in India where he has been receiving treatment following torture inflicted on him by security forces in Arua and continued to harass him.
Mr Zaake left the country on September 3 after being charged with treason and escape from lawful police custody from Arua Central Police Station where he had been detained following the chaos at the last day of campaigns in Arua Municipality ahead of a by-election that was later won by Kassiano Wadri, an Independent candidate.
Speaking for the first time since he was taken for specialized treatment at Manipal Hospital in India, Mr Zaake said the Kampala government has been used its foreign mission in India to interfere with his treatment.
“I left the country having been tortured and on the first attempt, barred to fly to India. When they let me go, they have been using Ugandan embassy officials to witch-hunt me in the hospital, asking doctors to release to them my medical papers,” he said in a telephone interview from India on Monday.
“They have made several attempts demanding access to me and my medical papers from the hospital but good enough doctors refused. You cannot torture, deny medical care and travel to your own national then demand forced access to him when you don’t want him to die,” he added.
The revelation confirms a September 5 story which this website published, saying security around sickbeds of MPs Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine and Zaake had been tightened following revelations that several state operatives have been sent to US and India to monitor how the two legislators were receiving treatment. Highly placed sources in Police had intimated to this website that the Director of Police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), Ms Grace Akullo, sent eight detectives to US and India to monitor the MPs’ conditions and what they have been diagnosed with.
On Monday, the legislator, who spent a latter part of his stay at the hospital in the Intensive Care Unit, was recently taken off the machines and is now able to talk.
Mr Zaake on Monday also confirmed that foreign agents were found in his blood, also confirming an earlier story published by this website.
“They (doctors) have told me that what they saw in my blood is equitable to the application of terrorism,” he said, adding that whatever government did to him will not deter him from continuing to fight for freedom in Uganda.
He also revealed the torture he underwent at the hands of security agents in Arua.
“The soldiers who tortured me kept asking why I disturb the President and one soldier shouted why after a lot of beating I could not die,” he said.
Mr Zaake, who also confirmed that he is returning to Uganda on Thursday, October 11, said that he has undergone thorough medical treatment but says he is still weak and lacks balance. He said he suffered dislocated spine discs and neck bones as well as the head injuries and as a result, he is still weak.
