According to witnesses at the scene as well as statements from Mr. Serumaga himself, the writer was accosted and dragged into a car, as he was leaving the television station where a weekly talk show in which he is a regular guest, had just ended.

“I came out of the TV station and four guys grabbed hold of me and forced me into a car,” Mr. Serumaga said by telephone on Sunday from the Central Police Station in Kampala. “They were dragging me literally on my back and dumped me into the back of the car. They were punching and kicking me and for some strange reason trying to undress me.”

Mr. Serumaga was abducted after leaving a weekly television talk-show, Kibazo on Friday, which was discussing the on-going stand-off between the Museveni government and the Kingdom of Buganda. His partner Maria and fellow panelists Charles Rwomushana and Bernard Tabaire plus show host Peter Kibazo witnessed the abduction.

That state forces were brazen enough to abduct a well-known media personality in the presence of witnesses is an extremely worrying indication of the direction the Ugandan government is taking against perceived critics. It is chillingly reminiscent of similar scenes from Uganda’s violent past during which prominent personalities were abducted and disappeared by the State.

Itinerary for the Caine Prize 10th Anniversary Tour in UK