Karua blocked from entering Uganda to support Lukwago’s defence team – Uganda Law Society

The Uganda Law Society has claimed that Senior Counsel Martha Karua was blocked from entering Uganda on Monday to join fellow advocates to support the defence team of her colleague, former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, who was arrested last week.

The society noted that Karua, as usual, had arrived at the Entebbe Airport only to be denied entry while those she travelled with were given access.

Karua also serves as the lead counsel for veteran opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye and Hajj Obeid Lutale in an ongoing high-profile treason case.

“Martha Karua had arrived in the country to join the defence team representing her defence colleague, Elias Lukwago, in the case involving Kizza Besigye and Obeid Lutale…While the colleagues she travelled with were allowed entry into the country, Karua was denied entry and instructed to return to her home country,” noted the Uganda Law Society.

The organisation said that the immigration officials at the airport gave no reason for the denial of entry to Karua, who was from Nairobi.

Karua’s tribulations come a few days after a former Ugandan mayor and lawyer representing detained opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who is on trial for treason, has himself been charged with a treason-related offence.

Elias Lukwago appeared before a magistrate’s court in the capital Kampala, looking visibly weak, local media reported, days after he was arrested at his home.

He denied the charges of failure to report treason and was remanded in prison until next week, when his case will be heard.

His arrest on Monday last week sparked condemnation after Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the country’s military chief and son of the president, boasted about it on social media.

Bobi Wine, the country’s leading Opposition figure who fled the country fearing for his life after ​contesting the January presidential election, alleged that Lukwago had been arrested on Kainerugaba’s orders as he was preparing to serve a court summons on the military chief.

“I call upon all of us to reject and resist this brazen impunity,” he posted on X.

Lukwago’s family went to court seeking an order compelling security officers, whom they accused of abducting him, to disclose his whereabouts and release him, whether “dead or alive”.

The family argued that Kainerugaba had claimed responsibility for Lukwago’s seizure and boasted about mistreating him on social media.

On X, Kainerugaba shared photos appearing to be of Lukwago blindfolded in an unknown location.

In another post he said: “I’m proud of all the hurt and pain I will inflict on the criminal Lukwago!”

Kainerugaba has a history of controversial posts, some of which have later been deleted, and has boasted of abducting and torturing opposition figures in the past.

Lukwago has been representing Besigye, who has been jailed on treason charges since being abducted in neighbouring Kenya and forcibly returned to Uganda in late 2024.

Besigye is a long-standing political opponent of President Yoweri Museveni. He once served as Museveni’s personal doctor before breaking ranks with him in 1999. He has run against Museveni in several presidential elections and has been detained multiple times.