Muwanga Kivumbi Walks Free After 169 Days on Remand as Court Grants Bail

KAMPALA — Former Butambala County MP Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi has been granted bail after spending 169 days in detention on terrorism charges, with the High Court’s International Crimes Division ruling Thursday that his sureties were substantial enough to secure his release.

Justice Susan Okalany delivered the verdict through the Electronic Court Case Management Information System, ordering Kivumbi released on a cash bond of Shs10 million. Most of his 23 co-accused were granted bail on similar terms, each required to pay Shs1 million in cash. Six applicants had their bail deferred after the court found their sureties inadequate.

As part of his release conditions, Kivumbi was ordered to surrender his passport, refrain from leaving Uganda, and report to the Butambala Chief Magistrate’s Court monthly, as well as to the International Crimes Division on the last Friday of every month. Those reporting obligations to the magistrate’s court will lapse once the Director of Public Prosecutions formally commits the case to the High Court for trial.

Kivumbi, the National Unity Platform’s deputy president for the Central region, was arrested on January 21 and arraigned on terrorism charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act — an offence that carries a maximum penalty of death. His co-accused, including two students later identified as juveniles, were initially charged separately with incitement to violence and malicious damage to property before the state withdrew those charges and folded all defendants into the terrorism case in early February.

The charges stem from post-election violence in Butambala district on January 15, which left seven people dead and caused extensive damage to property, including attacks on Kibibi police station and the district’s electoral tally centre. President Yoweri Museveni had publicly accused Kivumbi of orchestrating the unrest, describing the attacks as acts of terrorism.

In their bail application, filed jointly on May 4, the accused argued they had appeared repeatedly before the Butambala Chief Magistrate’s Court without being committed for trial or given a hearing date, blaming prolonged police investigations for the delay. Kivumbi, in his supporting affidavit, described himself as a 52-year-old law-abiding citizen with a three-decade leadership record and no prior criminal convictions, presenting sureties that included Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi and NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya.

The state had strongly opposed the application, disputing Kivumbi’s self-description as a sitting statesman and noting he no longer holds his parliamentary seat or chairs Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises. Prosecutors also argued that releasing the accused risked interference with witnesses and ongoing investigations into what they described as a grave threat to national security.

The case, closely watched as one of the most prominent opposition-linked prosecutions since Uganda’s January general elections, saw weeks of cross-examination of sureties before Justice Okalany, with state lawyers probing their incomes, occupations and relationships to the accused. Kivumbi and his co-accused now await committal to the High Court for trial.

SOURCE NILE POST