𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢

Over forty years of watching institutions that were meant to serve the people gradually become instruments for protecting power.

A foreign criminal octogenarian ruler at the center of a system where the police increasingly appears less like a public service but more like a private militia whose first duty is obedience.

Now that system has turned on one of its own.

Today, Cpl Mukolerwa Fatina of Kasangati was arrested following a TikTok video in which she accused her commanders of releasing a suspect of domestic violence.

Her crime, it seems was not merely speaking. It was speaking publicly and exposing the already existing rot. Museveni’s goons have called her conduct “scandalous” and reminded officers that questioning superiors in public is unacceptable.

And there, in that warning, lies the real problem.

𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭. 𝐎𝐛𝐞𝐲. 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐞

That is not discipline. That is a doctrine of fear in a Police-State.

ASP Muhammad Kirumira learned that lesson before her. He spoke about the rot within the police force. What followed were charges, raids, humiliation, dismissal and murder in that order. In 2018, he was gunned down by Museveni’s puppet goons unapologetically.

Others who dared to raise their voices have found themselves before courts, behind bars or permanently silenced.

That is why Fatina’s arrest should not be dismissed as an ordinary disciplinary matter. It fits a pattern that Ugandans have seen for years: silence the officer who speaks, intimidate the witness who exposes, punish the person who asks why.

In a country where the police themselves are afraid to tell the truth, what chance does the ordinary citizen have?

The message is chillingly simple: a suspect may walk free, commanders may never have to explain themselves, and the officer who asks questions will become the accused.

A government that doesn’t tolerate questions from its own police officers is not demonstrating strength.

It is exposing weakness.

A system that locks up its own officers for speaking about wrongdoing is not maintaining order.

𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

And silence has been one of the most powerful weapons of foreign despot Museveni’s four-decade rule.

For forty years, fear has done what elections, institutions and laws were supposed to do: keep the system intact.

But every arrest like Fatina’s reveals something the regime would rather hide.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡.

𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐈 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐎