By Fiona Anyakun

Seven supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) under the Kisekka Mission 2021 have reportedly vanished without a trace. Their families believe they were abducted for one reason alone: “opposing the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government.”

Some were taken from their homes in the dead of night. Others reported to have disappeared from their workplaces at ewa Kisekka, Kampala’s bustling motor spares hub. Since then, silence has replaced their voices, and fear has replaced hope.

“We have searched everywhere; police stations, hospitals and mortuaries but there is nothing,” says the wife of one of the missing men, her voice heavy with exhaustion and grief.

The missing include Ibra Ssentongo 22yrs, Kassim Walusimbi 31yrs, and Robert Muganga 29yrs. Others are Siraje Ddamulira, Robert Kakomo, Yusuf Walakira, and Dan Ssentamu, whose ages remain unknown.

These seven, now join a growing list of NUP supporters abducted after the disputed 2021 and 2026 presidential elections — men whose families have waited for answers for five long years. Among them are John Ddamulira, Hood Kawoya, Yasin Ssekitooleko, Moses Mbabazi Kawenja, Tom Kasekende, Muhammad Muluta and Thomas Walusimbi.

Some are believed to be languishing in prison. Others are said to have escaped into exile. But many families fear the worst — that their loved ones were killed and their bodies withheld, denying them even the dignity of burial.

In January this year, a Police report revealed that a total of 509 unidentified bodies were buried at the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) cemetery in Bukasa, last year 2025. According to the Police health services performance report 2025, a total of 723 bodies were recovered without identification. However, only 214 of them were later identified and claimed by relatives. This left the 509 bodies unclaimed.

The report paints a grim picture of the rising unexplained deaths linked to violent crime, mob justice plus hit-and-run road accidents. “We also believe that some of our missing relatives may be among those unidentified dead bodies,” expressed Teddy Namusoke, a wife looking for her missing husband.

Also, in the year 2024, 250 unclaimed bodies were buried at Bukasa cemetery, according to the police report. “All those people cannot be victims of road accidents. We’re afraid that among them, are our relatives who have gone missing since 2021,” Namusoke added.

On January 29, 2026, while addressing Parliament, the Leader of the Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi, also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nakawa West, vowed to continue pressing the government for answers on the whereabouts of the opposition political supporters. He described Parliament as one of the last remaining platforms for accountability.

Yet for families like that of Siraje Ddamulira, despair deepens with each passing day. “We have searched all police stations for Siraje in vain,” says one of his uncles, who requested anonymity. “Both police and the army deny holding him. We don’t even know what crime he is accused of- if any.”

Across Kampala and beyond, relatives of the abducted ask the same questions. Days to the 2026 presidential elections, Dr. Lina Zedriga 68years, the NUP vice chairperson for Northern Uganda was abducted and her whereabouts remain unknown.

In the same vain, Jolly Jacklin Tukamushaba, the NUP deputy president for Western Uganda was also abducted in front of some of her children, a day before the presidential elections. Her whereabouts also remain unknown.

Muwanga Kivumbi, the NUP vice president for central region was arrested a few hours after the 2026 general elections that took place on January 15. He was subsequently arraigned before court and charged with terrorism. NUP leadership contends that over 3,000 of the political party’s supporters have been picked by security operatives.

A Family broken by Silence

The disappearance of Hood Kawoya has left deep scars on his family. According to his uncle, Shaban Kabuye, Kawoya was arrested by security operatives at the Uganda–Tanzania border in Mutukula in 2021.

It is alleged that he was later transferred to a “safe house” under the Special Forces Command (SFC), an elite security outfit linked to President Museveni’s son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

At the time, Kawooya worked at ewa Kisekka, running a family business. “He later joined NUP despite repeated warnings from us,” Kabuye recalls. “But he was firm. He believed in change.” Kawooya was sighted on several campaign trails of NUP leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine– canvassing votes and support for NUP.

But political persecution was not the only burden Kawooya carried. Years earlier, while studying at Makerere University, his family noticed changes. “He avoided discussions about relationships, insisting he was uninterested. Elders grew concerned, until the truth surfaced on his graduation night, when his mother caught him in an intimate moment with a fellow man,” disclosed a family friend who asked to remain anonymous.

In the African cultural and most religious settings, homosexuality is considered a strong taboo. “The family tried to counsel him, but when he refused to change, they excommunicated him,” the source added.

Then came another blow. In 2022, a soldier appeared from no where, and claimed ownership of the family’s land before he began grading and reclaiming it. The family later learnt that the soldier was attached to the Special Forces Command (SFC).

“The soldier claims that Kawooya had sold him the land,” Kabuye explains. “But to the best of our knowledge, Kawooya had gone missing and his phones remain switched off. Since then, we can’t tell the exact truth,” Kabuye expressed.

The family’s attempts to seek help from police were futile. “They told us they don’t want trouble with SFC,” Kabuye adds. “We are trapped,” he says. “We have nowhere to run.”

Supporting the Opposition at One’s Own Peril

To many political observers and activists, Uganda’s multi-party system has long been a façade — a carefully managed arrangement designed to entrench President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled for over four decades.

The rise of People Power and the National Unity Platform disrupted this balance. The state’s response, critics say, has been brutal. NUP supporters are branded terrorists, charged with treason, abducted, or detained in secret facilities — not for violence, but for political choice.

“In Uganda today, supporting the opposition has become a life-threatening act. Those who survive abduction often flee into exile. The pattern re-emerged during the 2026 elections, spreading across districts including Wakiso, Kasese, Mbale, Iganga, Arua, Mbarara, Gulu, Busia, and Jinja,” noted Richard Sekyondo, a NUP politician who is contesting as the Entebbe municipality mayor.

Kisekka Market has become a haunting symbol of this repression. Once a vibrant hub where young people earned a living selling car spare parts, it is now remembered for the lives that disappeared from its stalls.

The NUP Kisekka Mission 2021 was deliberately targeted. Many of its supporters remain missing. Their families continue to wait — not just for justice, but for truth.

And until answers come, one question refuses to fade: Where are the missing opposition supporters?

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