This time, Foundation for Human Rights Intitiative Executive Director Livingstone Sewanyana has laid himself naked

The Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) headed by a prominent man in the human rights circles known as Livingstone Sewanyana has for more than two months been subjecting me to untold suffering, physical, mental and psychological torture and all forms of indignity including deprivation of my property and money.  Starting 12^th November, FHRI has been preoccupied with killing my good name which I have striven to build and defend for very many years. On the 12^th November, FHRI published a statement on its facebook page which was dubbed a press statement showing how I was no longer a member to the organization. When I asked whether anyone had a right to strip me of my membership given that it was not donated to me, my comments were deleted from the organization facebook page and I was blocked from posting any further comments. And this is  “a human rights organization”. This is an organization that believes in traducing people’s names and thereafter block them from giving their own versions.  What FHRI did reminded me of what the Uganda Police Force did. Because I never mince my words, I was blocked from posting comments on the facebook page of the Uganda Police Force.

Below is the most recent statement by FHRI that was circulated to the media houses and on the Civil Society Organisations listserv.

From the album: Timeline Photos

By Foundation For Human Rights Initiative (FHRI)

28th November 2013
FOUNDATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE STATEMENT CONCERNING ONE VINCENT VESSY NUWAGABA

The Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), wishes to inform the general public, partners, and the membership that a one Vincent Vessy Nuwagaba, who was associated with FHRI as a member has of recent been involved in criminal acts of violence, abuse, including misinformation that we take exception of.

He has on a number of occasions been arrested and prosecuted. In one incident in 2010, he was convicted and jailed at Luzira Prison for a period of 10 months on a charge of assault and defamation. In 2012, he assaulted a police officer at the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) and was subsequently charged at Buganda Road Magistrate’s court, while on two other occasions, he assaulted officials at Makerere University and subsequently abused the magistrate hearing the matter.

Of recent, he has been engaged in criminal acts of violence against the staff at the FHRI. On 18th October 2013, he attempted to rape a female member of staff and on 1st November 2013, he attacked and severally bit a male member of staff. He was arrested and detained at Kabalagala Police station and subsequently charged at Makindye Chief Magistrate’s Court on the 8th of November, 2013. He was remanded to Luzira Prison, and released on bail on the 12th of November, 2013.

In another incident he caused grievous bodily harm on our security staff. He is due to appear in court on 5th December 2013 to answer charges ranging from attempted rape, criminal trespass and causing bodily harm.

He is currently involved in character assassination and making defamatory statements against the person of the Executive Director, FHRI, Mr. Livingstone Sewanyana, because he has taken a strong stand against his unbecoming conduct. He purports to have been a staff member of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative which is false. The truth is that being a member of FHRI, he was always allowed to use our Resource Centre, and taking advantage of that he would make false representations.

The public is warned that this person has on many occasions used abusive language, made defamatory statements against prominent members of the academia, civil society, media, judiciary, and government. He uses this strategy of character assassination and, blackmail to extort money from unsuspecting and innocent people. He pretends sometimes to be mentally sick well knowing the consequences of his actions. FHRI cannot condone this unbecoming behavior, and to this end, we invite you to join us in exposing and isolating this individual through all lawful means.

We therefore advise members of the public to treat his utterances/allegations with the contempt they deserve and to be aware of his acts of violence, blackmail and extortion which could endanger any one he targets.

MANAGEMENT
Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI)

I would like to use this public forum to pose questions for the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative but also make my own comments which will go a long way in clarifying my position. I beg to put the record very straight.

I have no criminal record whatsoever

I have never been involved in any criminal acts because I was properly brought up. I grew up in a very good family under the good care of my late grandma Susanna Kirakwende who taught me the values of honesty, moral uprightness, hard work, teamwork, tolerance and above all the love and fear of God. My grandma who was a legionary of Mary despised pretence, dishonesty and hypocrisy. Because of that, I also despise these vices. Unfortunately, to people like Livingstone Sewanyana, dishonesty, pretence, hypocrisy and treachery are cherished values.

In fact, in 2009 there is a time when we had upcountry missions as the research division.  Different members in the division were to go to areas where they could fluently speak the local language. Charles Muloozi Olweny was to go to the northern Uganda since he is a Luo. Rashid Bunya who is a Muganda was to have his upcountry mission in the central and I was to go to the west since I am a Munyankore-Mukiga. Edmond Nkalubo who was our supervisor took Rashid Bunya to the north, central and when my turn came, he also went with him to the west leaving me out of these upcountry missions. 

When I asked why such a thing was done, no convincing answer was given to me. I appealed to the deputy director, programmes Sheila Muwanga and she was forthright. She told everyone that core principle number one of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) is equal opportunity which Edmond flouted. I only begged for a simple apology and an assurance that such a thing would never be repeated. I got no apology and no assurance that such would not be repeated. I straight went to Mr.  Livingstone Sewanyana. Instead of addressing the issues I had raised, he told me how some people would think I am a spy for the state at FHRI. I told him I will stick to the truth no matter the repercussions because as a Catholic and a Mukiga, the worst crime I can ever commit against my conscience and against my nation is to twist the truth. Mr Sewanyana told me that although I was a Catholic, it was unnecessary for me to stick to the truth. That is when I started developing misgivings about L.S as he is fondly called at the “Human Rights House”.

He who alleges proves

 It is a principle in law that he who alleges proves. FHRI alleges that I have been involved in criminal acts of violence, abuse, including misinformation that the management (or is it mismanagement) takes exception of. Let them give the details of the criminal acts I have been involved in. Let them urge the criminal justice system to have me prosecuted. I do not believe in impunity and I am sure if Foundation for Human Rights Initiative is a human rights organisation worth the name, it should abhor impunity. I am not above the law in any case I am not a president that I cannot be prosecuted when I am still in service.

Let FHRI enumerate the number of times I have been arrested and prosecuted and help the public know what the court verdicts have been in all the incidences I have been prosecuted. In other words, how many times have I been convicted and how many times have I been acquitted. Please, tell the public, whether I have been bribing the criminal justice institutions in cases where I have been acquitted.

 I have no criminal record
 For those of you who have always known Livingstone Sewanyana, George Musiisi, Doreen Namyalo and other people at FHRI to be lawyers, I must now disappoint you. These people were submarine law students. They are totally ignorant of the law. Otherwise, how would they say a person who was convicted by a paralegal (Grade II Magistrate James Wambaya after being prevailed upon by the corrupt regime) be acquitted of all the criminal charges, have sentences set aside and conviction quashed by a higher court has criminal records. 

Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years, I see FHRI heaping praises on him not calling him a criminal. The truth of the matter is that I deserve an award for accepting imprisonment in defence of social justice. The reason as to why I was jailed is because I opposed the increment of tuition fees at Makerere University by 126 percent in 2009. Nobody seems to know that I have always suffered because I love social justice.

Prior to my imprisonment, I had on three occasions been detained at Jinja Road Police station because I was striving to liberate Gaudence Tushabomwe who had been dumped in Butabika after fleecing her of her Sh 25million via COWE. Tushabomwe has now finished campus. She was given a state house scholarship afte I rescued her from that hell - Butabika where the state wanted to kill her using drugs. I liberated Sarah Miraji who had spent six months in police cells at Jinja Road Police stations. I have liberated too many people who are always illegally detained in police cells. And because civil society organizations con donors of their funds ostensibly to do human rights work which they do not do, they think they are my equals when it comes to human rights work. I am a human rights defender; Sewanyana and his ilk are human rights offenders.

Defamation charges?

 I am saddened that these so-called human rights defenders can exhibit naked ignorance on facebook. They say, I spent 10 months in jail in 2010 on a charge of assault and defamation. Can they prove (a) that I have ever been charged with defamation to begin with, (b) that I spent 10 months in jail? They sound like they are empty drums.

Can FHRI name the alleged female staff member that I attempted to rape? The truth of the matter is that I have never had feelings for the woman they allege I attempted to rape. I respect her as a human being but despise her character. Moreover, exceptionally beautiful and brilliant women who want me are so many that I cannot in anyway have time for the shadows at FHRI that have been desecrated by the FHRI director.

I expect FHRI to name a male staff member that I allegedly assaulted and the one on whom I allegedly caused grievous bodily harm. Let them also detail the cause of me assaulting and causing grievous bodily harm to those people. If you have ever been to a law class, you must have studied about causation. We need the truth to be told boldly, clearly and shamelessly.

 If I have defamed anyone at FHRI, I am ready for the long arm of the law. I know two defences in a defamation suit, i) justification, ii) fair comment. I am ready to justify everything I have said and written about FHRI and Sewanyana. I will not even bother myself hiring a lawyer if they sued me for defamation.

It is shameless on the part of Livingstone Sewanyana to deny that I have been a staff member at FHRI. Those of you who have read the FHRI reports must have read my name in some of those reports. Let FHRI and Livingstone explain whether they were hiring me as a consultant or how my name ended in those reports. In fact, I am suing FHRI for all my unpaid dues. Josephine Kankunda, Carol Adoch, Olweny Charles Mulozi, Mike Kayiwa, Edmond Nkalubo, Rashid Bunya among others that I worked with in the research are the ones to testify in court whether or not I have ever been FHRI staff member. But even if I have never been a staff member, so what? Does that answer the issues I have often raised?

I expect FHRI to name all the prominent members of academia, media, civil society judiciary and government that I have defamed. Give the details. Otherwise, this statement is simply hogwash and must be thrown into the garbage skip.

Please, be candid and show the people I have blackmailed with a view of extorting money from them. I have laboured to build my name. I do not expect the intellectual dwarfs at FHRI to erase the good name I have built for ages.

 If you are calling upon the public to expose and isolate me through lawful means, why don't you take the lead? You have all the facts about me (or you claim to have all the facts about me), including my sexual life, why do you call upon members of the public who are less knowledgeable about me to expose me lawfully?

FHRI has always worked for Museveni and NRM and many people didn’t know it. All known opposition members of the organization cannot be accepted on the FHRI Board. But the FHRI board comprises of open Musevenisists and some judicial officers known to have presided over the flagrant abuse of the opposition key figures’ rights. Some of the magistrates that are playing a key role in FHRI have very dirty hands. 

If tasked, I can even prove how they have always been bribed and they end up convicting innocent people wrongly. I cry when I recall how my friend Ivan Ntsigazi wrongly spent years in Murchison Bay Prison yet he was convicted by an FHRI member who has in the past served for two terms on the board and is now a member of the FHRI working group. Whenever I see the Magistrate that made Dr Kiiza Besigye suffer in Nabweru court seated among the FHRI dignitaries, I say God have mercy!

Finally, FHRI has committed all sorts of atrocities against me ranging from exploitation, mishandling of my cases, theft of my money, torture, brutal, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. On the 4th November 2013, they forced me to lie down looking into the sun directly. Crispy Kaheru,  Gwada Ogot and all other members of staff witnessed that horror. It is the very time I was deprived of my money, computer and other stuff. It is the very day, Elly Kasirye, Livingstone Sewanyana's nephew battered me terribly. It is that very day that my phone was shattered. I am sure, I will get justice. I am going to write to all FHRI donors whose addresses I have, I will write formally to Prof George W. Kanyeihamba, the FHRI patron and I will write to the FHRI Board of Directors headed by my very own recruit into FHRI Reverand Canon John Kateeba Tumwiine. We must have an extraordinary Annual General Meeting to address these critical matters.

I have in the past handed myself to the police following the wild claims by FHRI that I am a hardcore criminal and nothing has been done to me. I now call upon the police to arrest me, take me to court and call Livingstone Sewanyana as a state witness against me. As a social scientist, I am dismayed that ostensibly understanding people like FHRI management can make such blatant, weird and defamatory falsehoods against a person who has since 2004 worked for FHRI, recruited various members for the organization but also promoted the organization far and wide. This is not the reciprocity that I expected. I wish all Ugandans at Heart, a merry Christmas, a blessed festive season and a prosperous 2014.

Mr. Nuwagaba is a UAH forumist, human rights defender, human rights scholar, researcher and academic. Contact +256702843552

Email: vnuwagaba@gmail.com