UgandaToday: NUP’s Zedriga and Tukamushaba Resurface in Courts After Three Weeks in Incommunicado Detention
By Uganda Today, Kampala, Uganda
February 6, 2026 — After nearly three weeks out of public view following alleged abductions, two senior officials of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Dr. Lina Zedriga Waru and Jolly Jacklyn Tukamushaba, were on Friday produced in separate courts and formally charged with incitement to violence — a move that has intensified concerns over political freedoms in Uganda.
Dr. Lina Zedriga Waru Abuku, the NUP Deputy President for Northern Uganda, appeared before Gulu Magistrate’s Court, where she denied charges relating to alleged acts of inciting violence in multiple districts of Northern Uganda during the run-up to the tightly contested January 15 general elections.
Meanwhile, Jolly Jacklyn Tukamushaba, the party’s Deputy President for Western Uganda, was arraigned before Kabale Chief Magistrate’s Court on similar charges. Tukamushaba also denied all allegations and was remanded to Ndorwa Prison pending further court proceedings.
In Nakawa Court, John Mary Ssebuufu, NUP’s Buganda Regional Election Coordinator, was charged with incitement to violence and remanded to Luzira Prison, marking a third prominent party official brought before judicial processes after weeks of unaccounted detention.
Disappearance and Detention Concerns
All three had been reported missing in mid-January following what the NUP described as enforced abductions by army personnel. For nearly three weeks, their families and party officials had no confirmed information on their whereabouts, sparking domestic and international alarm over alleged unlawful detentions.
In Dr. Zedriga’s case, local leaders and cultural institutions publicly pressed authorities to disclose her status and produce her before a court as required by law.
Security agencies, however, had previously denied holding the missing officials, contributing to widening mistrust between the opposition, the authorities, and civil society groups tracking the cases of missing persons linked to the election period.
Political Context
The court appearances occur amid an increasingly tense post-election environment, where scores of opposition candidates and supporters have been charged in a wave of arrests following the January 15 polls — elections that saw President Yoweri Museveni declared the winner against his main challenger, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine.
NUP leaders and rights advocates have condemned the arrests as politically motivated and part of a broader pattern of suppressing dissent ahead of and after the elections.
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