Nine former detainees at Nalufenya Police facility in Jinja have called for special inquiries into allegations of torture and extra judicial killings at the facility.
The former detainees stormed Uganda Human Rights Commission-UHRC during a press conference on the international day to support torture victims to lodge their petition.
They claimed that six of their colleagues lost their lives in the facility where most of them were tortured by the officers. Retired Major Musisi Galabuzi, one of the former detainees at Nalufenya Police facility, explained that he was picked up on suspicion of assassinating the former Police Spokesperson, Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
According to Galabuzi, the officers drove nails through his fingers and teargased him to confess to the crime. Galabuzi also says he personally witnessed the torture and death of about six people at Nalufenya.
Grace Bukenya, another complainant says he was locked up in Nalufenya over the machete attacks in Masaka district. According to Bukenya, he was tortured physically and psychologically while in custody for speaking out against Police.
Bukenya says when the Commission decided to inspect the facility following widespread complaints of torture, the officers hid some of the suspects in critical condition and coached the remaining suspects what to tell the Commission.
The UHRC chairperson, Medi Kaggwa, says he received scanty information about some of the victims of torture at the facility.
The former Buyende District Police Commander, Muhammad Kirumira who also attended the briefing asked the Commission to investigate the torture directed at him and his family during his arrest.
The new Inspector General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola designated Nalufenya a police station in April this year, saying it was causing the force a bad image because of numerous complaints of torture.
The facility operated under the Special Investigations Department and was managed by the Police Flying Squad, a unit that was directly under the former Inspector General of Police, Kale Kayihura.
Legislators called for investigations into the facility after after gruesome photos of Geoffrey Byabakama, the Kamwenge Town Council LC III Chairperson with injuries on his knees and ankles went viral on social media.
Byamukama was one of the suspects picked up in connection to the assassination of former Police spokesperson, Andrew Felix Kaweesi. The facility was established in 1954 as a Police post.
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