Uganda is failing to hold 'torturers' accountable, according to Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch has criticized the Ugandan government's unwillingness to hold security agents accountable for the alleged imprisonment and torture of hundreds of government critics and protesters (HRW).

The rights group interviewed 34 former detainees and witnesses, who detailed episodes of forced disappearances, imprisonment in non-designated locations called houses," and torture.

According to Human Rights Watch, those detained were confined in a room in the basement of the parliament building, residential houses throughout Kampala, and an island on Lake Victoria.

Security officers had raped her twice, according to one woman, and she had been chained "as if crucified" and left in that position for 12 hours.

The administration had supported the government's officers' brazen arbitrary arrests, illegal imprisonment, and maltreatment of detainees, according to HRW Uganda researcher Oryem Nkyeko.

Before and during the general election in 2021, there was a spike in forced disappearances and arbitrary arrests.
Uniformed and armed personnel apprehended opposition politicians, their supporters, and hundreds of government critics and tossed them into unmarked vans known locally as "drones."

Popular government critics such as Stella Nyanzi, author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, and even members of parliament have been kidnapped and detained incommunicado for days before being brought before a court.

The government has yet to reply to HRW's allegations, but authorities have stated on multiple occasions that Uganda has no safehouses.