PEN Prize winner Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has been released on bail, following his kidnap and illegal detention on December 28, 2021.

After he was freed on January 26, 2022, several graphic pictures (alleged to be of the writer) were posted on social media. The images show a man’s backs, thigh, and feet covered in gashes, scars, and ugly welts. 

The torture marks bear a semblance to a forgotten era, that era where a man’s skin determined his level of freedom; and where men with fairer skins got off on the lashes and bloody punishments inflicted on their slaves. 

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija made a post on his Facebook wall, confirming the authenticity of the photos. In his words, “for clarification, these are my photos. This is my newly decorated body. I won’t talk about the case now because I respect court’s order not to discuss it.”

The author was arrested on account of tweets he made in December last year, ridiculing Uganda’s corrupt President, Yoweri Museveni, and his son—Lt. Gen. Kainerugaba Muhoozi—who is reportedly gearing to succeed his father.

While in Kitalya Mini-Max Prison, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was visited by Mathias Mpuuga, leader of opposition in the Ugandan Parliament. The author narrated his ordeal to Mathias and his team, “my captors would tell me to dance all night and day. I was forced to carry weights or a jerry-can full of water and told to dance. We could only rest when it was time for eating or sleeping. Even the sleep was not enough… I would be allowed to sleep for 30 minutes. I could not sleep because the floor was too cold. They would pour water on the tiles,” Kakwenza said.

“I was in too much pain. They would inject me six times every six hours with substances I did not know. Three injections in my feet and three injections on the buttocks. I would be forced to swallow a handful of tablets and capsules every six hours,” he said.

Still speaking to Mathias, the writer detailed horrors inflicted on his body and mind. “Sometimes I feel pain on the left side of my heart and I usually get panic attacks. When the physician counted for me, I had 47 scars on my back. I also have 16 scars on my thigh. They used whips and pliers to pluck out pieces of flesh from my body. I feel too much pain between the foot and the knee. It seems my fibula was damaged. By the time I got here, all my legs were swollen,” he said.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija is the author of Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous and The Greedy Barbarian. In 2021 he was named winner of PEN Pinter Prize.