NAIROBI: A traitor to his peers but a hero to many, a Ugandan army officer has leaked unprecedented footage of a secret jail where he says political opponents of the government were brutally tortured.
The east African country has been ruled for 40 years by President Yoweri Museveni, whose son Muhoozi Kainerugaba is head of the army and openly boasts on social media of abducting and torturing political opponents, and threatens to kill those who stand against the family.
Intelligence officer Herbert Matanda Mabonga says he captured evidence of the government's brutality when he was jailed for almost six months for investigating corruption allegations.
They have wracked up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, and sparked widespread condemnation.
"It is the first time that we have evidence that they cannot refute," Ugandan rights activist Agather Atuhaire said in a phone interview with AFP's office in Nairobi.
Army spokesperson Chris Magezi dismissed Mabonga's allegations outright, labelling them "rubbish", and Museveni has previously denied he ever "tortured, or ordered anybody to torture, an opponent".
But multiple organisations -- including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations -- have detailed Uganda's use of enforced disappearances and torture.
- 'Tortured until disabled' -
From the window of his cell, Mabonga recorded footage of Sam Mugumya, a senior advisor to the opposition who went missing on August 26, 2025.
Mugumya's lawyer says he was "abducted by the military", and has not been heard from since.
In the videos seen by AFP, allegedly shot within the last three months, the once robust-looking Mugumya appears gaunt and frail as he hobbles around a courtyard.
Mabonga says Mugumya was learning to walk again after being "tortured to disability".
The Ugandan authorities, who have never admitted to holding Mugumya, have claimed without evidence that he had voluntarily left for Democratic Republic of Congo.
The army spokesperson told AFP he was "unaware" of whether Mugumya was in detention, and declined to answer a question on the army's use of torture.
Within the secret facility, "beating was the order of the day", Mabonga told AFP by phone.
"People lost their teeth, and the unfortunate ones had their fingernails plucked out with pliers," he said. "Pliers, electric shocks and anything that inflicts pain were used."
As an army officer, Mabonga says he was allowed to keep a phone in his cell. He says he cried as he listened to the screams of his fellow prisoners, an experience that galvanised him into speaking out.
"We need to wake up, we need to stand up, we need to have a voice that says, 'enough is enough'," he says in one video.
Mabonga says he escaped the secret facility in September, filming its exterior and later revealing its location in Entebbe on social media.
Asked how he escaped, Mabonga said he found some weaknesses in its security, adding: "I'm a soldier."
The Ugandan army has denied the centre's existence, despite the videos showing military equipment -- some bearing the initials of the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF).
- 'Execute him soon' -
The denials run counter to the online posturing of army chief and presidential son Kainerugaba.
He claimed on X in October that he "had Sam Mugumya", before deleting the post.
"He is fine. But I am going to execute him soon," he wrote.
Known for his incendiary messages, Kainerugaba has repeatedly boasted of holding opposition figures "in his basement", and shared images of them in which they appear to have been physically abused.
"Uganda's regime must stop treating political dissent as a crime," Ugandan NGO Human Rights Defenders posted on X. "You cannot imprison an entire nation into silence."
Opposition leader Joel Ssenyonyi told parliament that arrested persons must be produced in court, rather than being held incommunicado in "appalling" conditions.
Mabonga also filmed jailers' lists of people brought to the secret jail -- mostly critics of the government -- and shot footage of opposition lawmaker Muwanga Kivumbi, who Human Rights Watch says was detained for 19 days in July and beaten by security forces.
There is no chance of action being taken by the current regime, said Athuaire, the rights activist.
"All the institutions of the state are serving the violators," she said.