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When was Ninye Tabz dumped at CPS?
Prominent online activist, whistleblower, and photojournalist Andrew Natumanya, widely known to the public as NinyeTabz on X, has suddenly been dumped at the Central Police Station (CPS) in Kampala by unknown security operatives. His abrupt appearance follows exactly five days of an intense incommunicado forced disappearance, during which state security organs completely denied holding him while family members and human rights lawyers launched a frantic nationwide search. This was posted by the UOX President, Gift Grace.
The high-profile digital creator was dropped off at CPS heavily exhausted but alive, ending days of terrifying silence after he was violently abducted in broad daylight by plainclothes operatives. The development has immediately turned CPS Kampala into a high-security flashpoint, with National Unity Platform (NUP) legal teams and civil liberties advocates rushing to the facility to demand his unconditional release on police bond or immediate production before a magistrate.
Later on, today on Monday evening, June 22, 2026, Andrew Natumanya (Ninye Tabz) was officially granted police bond and released from detention at the Central Police Station (CPS) in Kampala. The news of his release was first confirmed by prominent social justice activist and UOX President, Gift Grace Achilla, who has been actively working alongside NUP legal units to secure his constitutional rights.
While Tabz is finally out of the cells and reunited with his family, his legal representatives remain on high alert to review the exact conditions of his bond, marking a massive victory for the online community and human rights defenders who have spent days demanding his immediate freedom.
He also supported the 100 hours tree walk
Why was NinyeTabz abducted from Kamwokya?
Andrew Natumanya was violently abducted from the Kampala suburb of Kamwokya on the evening of Wednesday, June 17, 2026, by plainclothes state agents. Eyewitness accounts and security alerts published by NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya and Leader of the Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi confirmed that Tabz was cornered and bundled into a notorious unmarked Toyota Hiace van—popularly known in Uganda as a “drone”—before being whisked away to an anonymous black site.
As the official personal photographer for NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine), Tabz has historically used his lens to document opposition movements, street actions, and human rights violations. However, over the past year, his digital platform on X evolved into a highly potent anti-corruption whistleblowing node, making him a prime structural target for state intelligence handlers determined to shut down his operational leaks.
How did Ninye Tabz leak the Anita Among home raid updates?
Tabz cultivated a massive online audience because of his uncanny access to high-level state intelligence, frequently posting highly accurate updates about impending government actions hours before they were formally executed. His most explosive leak occurred during the massive anti-graft probe targeting top parliamentary leadership, where he scooped mainstream newsrooms by breaking the news that a joint security task force was moving to execute a sudden, sweeping raid on the Kampala and upcountry residences of the then-Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among.
The subsequently verified raids resulted in the state auditing Among’s luxury assets and real estate holdings amidst heavy international sanctions, causing her severe political downfall. By documenting every restricted development of the anti-corruption crackdown in real-time, Tabz proved he had deep networks of informants inside internal security circles, escalating his status from a casual blogger to an existential digital threat to elite political actors.
Is the arrest of Ninye Tabz connected to Erias Lukwago’s treason case?
The timed abduction of Ninye Tabz directly intersects with a aggressive, widespread military crackdown targeting top-tier opposition leaders across the country. Just 48 hours before Tabz was grabbed by a drone in Kamwokya, heavily armed military squads conducted a late-night raid on the home of prominent opposition lawyer and Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, who also serves as the President of the newly launched People’s Front for Freedom (PFF).
Lukwago was held incommunicado in an anonymous military facility before being presented at the Kira Divisional Police Station, slapped with severe charges of misprision of treason, and immediately remanded to Luzira Prison. Legal analysts note that processing both a high-profile structural politician like Lukwago and a premier digital whistleblower like Tabz within the same week highlights a coordinated state strategy to dismantle both the physical and online mobilization infrastructure of the opposition simultaneously.
Why did Uganda Police deny holding Andrew Natumanya in custody?
Throughout the five days Andrew Natumanya was missing, the Uganda Police Force and parallel military intelligence arms maintained a strict wall of denial, claiming they had no knowledge of his whereabouts or the individuals behind his abduction. This pattern of state denial forced the Uganda Law Society and human rights tracking units to sound alarms over the rising trend of extrajudicial “drone” abductions that bypass standard constitutional booking protocols.
Following intense public outery and legal pressure, state-aligned media channels like New Vision began running defensive narratives, claiming security sources had intercepted vague, unspecified complaints of “blackmail, defamation, and extortion” against the tech-savvy photographer. Civil rights advocates have entirely rejected these claims, labeling them as a standard administrative cover story designed to justify the extrajudicial interrogation and psychological breaking of a political dissident before formally entering him into the judicial system at CPS.
