Salaamu Musumba speaks out, not returning home soon

Kampala, Uganda | URN | The whereabouts abroad of former Bugabula South Member of Parliament Proscovia Salaamu Musumba remain unclear despite her appearing online last week on a Uganda Law Society (ULS) X Space discussion on Witness Protection and Safe Evacuation.

She urged Ugandans to prepare psychologically for the possibility of having to leave their homes to protect their lives, insisting that seeking safety should not be regarded as surrender or weakness. “Listening to the conversation back home, I see many, many potential victims. And saving your life, you shouldn’t look at it as a point of weakness or as a point of shame. It’s not,” she said.

She added, “Because freedom is good. I didn’t know it was good until I didn’t have it.”

Musumba said Uganda needed to develop its own support mechanisms and dispute resolution channels rather than rely exclusively on international humanitarian organisations, whose assistance might not arrive in time.

“We have to replace the Red Cross. We have to replace the UNHCR in their duties and their mandates because we will not get the required timely support that we so badly need,” she said.

Despite her concerns, she said the ultimate aspiration remained the ability of Ugandans to live safely in their own country rather than be forced into displacement or exile.

“The biggest demand that we desire is to live at home and to live in peace, if we can, if we can work for it,” she said.

While Salaamu Musumba had previously stated that she was not about to flee to exile, as the trial of Dr Kizza Besigye and his co-accused continues, the tone in her first address since she has been out of Uganda shows that she may not be back home soon, as she fears possible arrest and detention.

Sources close to her indicate it may take a long time for the former Movement cadre-turned-opposition politician to return to Uganda under the prevailing political storm.

Sources close to the PFF leader told URN that she is still processing her asylum in a country yet to be disclosed.  If it is true, she joins the former Kiira MP, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, who has equally not returned to Uganda since his name was linked to the Kizza Besigye case.

Musumba says she spent an entire year living in fear and social isolation after being named in court proceedings linked to opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye, describing the experience as an attempt to intimidate and silence her.

Musumba shocked

Musumba says she was shocked when her name surfaced at Nakawa Magistrates’ Court in connection with the amended indictment involving Besigye and former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.

She was allegedly described as an architect behind activities linked to the case, including meetings in Geneva, Brussels and Greece, allegations she disputes.

“When my name was mentioned at Nakawa Magistrates’ Court, I was in shock. I thought they were talking about somebody else, not me,” Musumba said.

She was speaking during a Uganda Law Society (ULS) X Space discussion on Witness Protection and Safe Evacuation, where she recounted how the court proceedings had affected her personal life and sense of security.

Musumba said she only began to appreciate the danger after several lawyers intervened to warn her that she could be at risk.

“It took a lot of legal support from so many of my legal friends to tell me, ‘Salaam, you’re in danger. Salaam, you’re not safe. You have been mentioned as an architect,’” she said.

She said she was particularly disturbed by allegations that she had organised meetings in European cities she had never visited.

“I’m alleged to have set up meetings in Geneva, in Greece, and in Brussels. And these are places I’ve never been to,” she said.

Musumba questioned why her name had been brought into the proceedings, arguing that the effect was to make her appear guilty and isolate her from other people.

“So what was the purpose of naming me? The purpose was to isolate me,” she said.

She described how the allegations affected her relationships, saying people became reluctant to contact or associate with her because they feared being implicated or having their own names appear in court records.

“For a whole year, I lived like I was guilty. Nobody wants to associate with you. Nobody wants to call you because they don’t want their name to be on the court register,” she said. Musumba described the experience as an emotional, physical and psychological burden, adding that the fear of torture was real.

“Knowing me, it’s a real full plate that I have to deal with emotionally, physically, psychologically, and torture is real,” she said.

Her concerns about political persecution and the safety of people caught up in political conflict, she explained, are rooted in her earlier humanitarian work.

Musumba said she spent 10 years working with the Red Cross after 1986, when she witnessed the consequences of conflict, including displacement, family separation and the need to evacuate people from unsafe areas.

“The Red Cross, together with other humanitarian agencies, the UNHCR, played an important role in safeguarding humanity, in evacuation, in getting families. Even we had a department called tracing, tracing people,” she said.

She recalled working in an environment where reception centres for internally displaced people had become almost an industry, with families fleeing areas including Koboko and Sudan.

The experience made her question why humanitarian agencies had to wait until violence had already forced people from their homes before intervening.

“Why would we be working in dealing with a situation that has already gotten out of hand? Why don’t we try to prevent these situations from occurring?” she asked.

She said that conviction informed her decision to enter politics, with the aim of preventing displacement and promoting safety, freedom and justice.

“My calling to politics came out of that, that we must do anything and everything to stop people from being displaced, requiring evacuation, and promote safety, freedom, and justice,” she said.

Constituent Assembly

Musumba recalled entering the Constituent Assembly with the hope that the Constitution would provide a framework for protecting all Ugandans, regardless of their political beliefs.

“At the time of the Constituent Assembly, in the biggest dream that we would make a constitution that would safeguard us all, and that we would use as a tool for growth and growing a human society, where we would all find space, whether we agree or don’t agree,” she said.

But she believes the country has moved away from that ambition.

“I thought, really, we have the history to choose a different path. But as it happens now, we only made a big round circle for 40 years, back to the spot we were at in 1980. And so we are not falling in line with our dreams,” she said.

Musumba warned that the problem of insecurity was no longer limited to individuals directly involved in political cases, arguing that Uganda’s protection systems had become unreliable.

She questioned whether humanitarian organisations traditionally associated with protecting people fleeing conflict could still guarantee their safety, alleging that informers had infiltrated institutions such as the Red Cross and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“I’m sure the informers within the Red Cross, the informers within UNHCR, that they are no longer safety passages for anyone,” she said.

She did not provide specific evidence of the alleged infiltration during the discussion, but said the loss of confidence in these institutions had left people facing threats with few options.

“So we are on our own. We are largely on our own with our gods. And that’s the most frightening part that we are going to have to deal with the worst in our history because all the safety nets have been decapitated,” she said.

Musumba called for witness protection and evacuation arrangements that go beyond formal institutional structures, saying people at risk need practical and timely assistance tailored to their individual circumstances.

“This is going to happen more and more. It cannot be just structured. We should be able to prepare, to secure in every way possible witnesses and people and actors that find themselves in a situation where evacuation becomes necessary,” she said.