By Sulaiman Kauki
Four members of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s private security team have been granted bail, but Eddie Mutwe and Achilleo Kivumbi will remain in custody over separate charges pending before Kawempe court.
Mutwe, Kivumbi, Gaddafi Mugumya and Grace Wakabi Smart have been granted bail, with each required to pay Shs5 million in cash.
However, Mutwe and Kivumbi will remain in custody because of separate charges they are facing before the Kawempe courts.
Mutwe, whose real name is Edward Ssebuufu, was abducted in Mukono District on April 27, 2025, and held incommunicado for days.
He was later produced before Masaka Grade One Magistrates Court and charged with aggravated robbery, robbery and assault over an incident alleged to have occurred during the May 2024 burial of businessman Pascal Ssekasamba in Lwengo District.
His detention attracted widespread attention after then Chief of Defence Forces Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba acknowledged that Mutwe had been held in a basement.
When he was eventually produced in court on May 5, 2025, he appeared to have difficulty walking and was supported by two people.
Kivumbi, Mugumya and Wakabi were separately arrested in February 2025 and charged alongside Mutwe in the Masaka case.
The prosecution alleges that the group robbed a journalist of a mobile phone and sweater and assaulted other people during the burial. The accused have denied the allegations.
Their arrest followed a period in which NUP said several of its supporters had been abducted and held incommunicado.
In February 2025, party president Kyagulanyi said Kivumbi, Mugumya and Wakabi had been picked up during a security raid on the party’s offices and moved through different locations before being transferred to Masaka.
The four later sought bail in the Masaka case, but the High Court in August 2025 rejected their application, saying that although the bail requirements had been met, the court was not satisfied that the accused would not interfere with witnesses.
Mutwe and Kivumbi also faced another case before Kawempe Magistrates Court involving allegations of unlawful military-style drilling at NUP offices in Makerere-Kavule.
In October 2025, Kawempe court dismissed an application for mandatory bail, saying it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the application.
The latest bail decision therefore does not immediately secure the release of all four.
While Mugumya and Wakabi are expected to benefit from the bail granted in the case under consideration, Mutwe and Kivumbi remain in custody because of the separate Kawempe charges.
The accused persons remain presumed innocent until proven guilty.