Horror: Meet Youthful Jonathan Mugula living in Fear for Wanting Peaceful Government Transition

When people say, ‘My life will never be the same’, it is mostly that their lives have taken sharp turns for the better. However, when I say, the same statement, I say it with a lot of distress, pain, grief and loss.

I write this with a lot of fear, despair, and distortion.

If you have read this far, kindly read to the end, not because you should or because it reads like a sob story but because I am certain there are other people from Uganda who have gone and are going through the same horror that I am going through.

My name is Jonathan Mugula, I am in danger! Danger for speaking my mind, being honest, wanting equality, wanting a change!

They say that experiencing pain is part of being human. From scraped knees to our first heartbreak, being hurt is unpleasant but unavoidable. We heal, move on and push through the pain. The truth is, I am not sure if I can move past what happened to me.

Being able to speak about an injustice should never be a crime, and seeing that there so many injustices happening, repeatedly, I chose to take a side.

I joined Kizza Besigye by then he was chairman of Forum for Democratic Change(FDC), an opposition Political Party, that was and is seeking to change many wrongs that the current regime-National Resistance Movement(NRM) has caused over the course of their 34 years of dictatorial stay in power.

That caused a lot of panic and havoc for me, mostly from the so called, ‘Security Agencies’ I was followed back when returning to my home, I received various phone calls, with the voices on the other end telling me, “Do you know who we are and what we can do to you and your family”?

I did not feel safe, even just taking a weekend walk to the nearby restaurant just to watch a football match with my friends. Life was turning inside out.

I gathered up, the little resources that I had and fortunately, I was able to get a Visa to Turkey in 2010.

I sought and got some solace there. However, the threats continued! How the people who started calling me and how they were able to get my contact is still something I have not been able to figure out.

Living in a foreign country, is not an easy thing. Finding where to stay, people to talk to, asking for help. As a man, your pride, self-esteem, are diminished, that takes a toll on someone mentally but as the adage goes, ‘Never back down’, I did not back down.

I kept going on, surviving, living in horror, fear, despair.

Life always has a way of giving and showing you that glim light at the end of the tunnel. You always never know whether it is a light to run to or to run from.

For my case it was a light to, a glim of hope, amidst the fear, the horror that I am facing.

I was able to get some resources from a few family members and found my way to the Netherlands, now living in Holland.

This is not my home. This is not where I belong. I am in fear. I am horrified. I need help.

But it not being my home, doesn’t mean that this is not a warm place, I found someone who cares and adores me, I have a family, like any father, I am obliged and to provide and protect.

This is my family, and I would do anything in my power to ensure that they are safe, but the current situation is keeping me handcuffed to do that.

Just on November 18-2020, while Presidential Aspirant, Robert Kyagulanyi was attempting to head to Luuka District for his campaigns, there was a lot of bloodshed, many people lost lives, many got injured, shops were looted and various kinds of horror all because the, ‘Authorities’ said he(Kyagulanyi) had violated the, Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs)set by the Electoral Commission for campaigning during the coming Uganda 2021 elections in January.

As you witnessed on various media channels, the chaos was not just in Uganda but even elsewhere, in Holland, many people, could not let this injustice go on without doing anything.

I was part of the group that rallied people, as we marched on the roads. Our crime, my crime, is speaking out and acting for what is right!

Being a key figure and face of these call for Equality! I have had my life turn around, but turn around not for the better, but for worse and for safety.

This has, of course affected me, these are my people, they are people I grew up with, they are my friends, community peers.

This is my country. But I was more shocked that in this grief, I started receiving and I am still receiving other calls, from unknown people asking me about, the mobilization of the ‘hooligans’ on the streets and how, ‘ You will have to answer, and tell us the people you working with.”

This is my story! I am horrified, Scared.

My name is Jonathan Mugula!
This is my story!