Marinos Alexandria, the 31-year-old supporter of the National Unity Platform (NUP) who was abducted from Mbuya in 2022 for playing Bobi Wine’s music is dead.
Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, the president of NUP, said Alexandria had succumbed to the lingering effects of torture and trauma inflicted upon her three years earlier while in detention. After her release, she fled to Kenya but reportedly sneaked back into Uganda to seek treatment from her relatives.
“Out of the abduction and torture ordeal, Marinos contracted several diseases,” Kyagulanyi wrote in his eulogy, saying she was one of “hundreds of other victims of the Museveni regime of blood and terror.”
In 2022, UPDF dismissed her claims of rape and torture while in detention. Maj Gen. Felix Kulayigye labelled them fabrications at a press conference. Human rights groups, however, corroborated patterns of such abuses.
Amnesty International has documented waves of violations during the 2021 elections, including killings and arbitrary detentions.
Yet Alexandria’s’ fate is not isolated. Uganda’s opposition has endured systemic persecution over the last two decades.
In 2018, Yasin Kawuma, Kyagulanyi’s driver, was shot dead in Arua during a chaotic by-election rally. The UPDF claimed opposition involvement, but no prosecutions ensued, fueling accusations of cover-ups. During the 2020-2021 election campaigns, more than 50 protesters died in protests in Kampala.
Veteran opposition leader Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential challenger, has faced repeated arrests and is currently detained in Luzira prison where he has spent more than 10 months. In addition, scores of NUP supporters remain missing since the 2021 elections, with some feared dead.
Alexandria’s death could reignite demands for international scrutiny. However, in Uganda, it is sometimes the price activists have to pay for daring to fight for political freedom.
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