The family of Kamwokya-based musician Christopher Gody, popularly known as King Zale, has renewed calls for his release or production in court after identifying what they believe is the missing musician in video footage recently released by former intelligence officer Lt Herbert Matanda Mabonga.
The family says it recognised Gody towards the end of one of the clips, which Mabonga claimed was recorded inside a military safe house in Abayita Ababiri, Entebbe. It is now 170 days since armed men allegedly picked up Gody on April 21, 2026, near the Firebase Crew offices in Kamwokya. His family and friends believe some of those involved were security operatives.
According to his wife, Lilian Nakiwala, some of the men wore Special Forces Command (SFC) and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) uniforms, while others wore civilian clothes. Nakiwala says the family has received no information about Gody’s whereabouts or the charges against him despite searching for him at various detention facilities.
She says the family began closely examining footage released by Mabonga, a junior officer who identifies himself as a former Defence Intelligence operative. Mabonga recently said he could no longer continue serving because of what he described as arbitrary arrests, disappearances, kidnappings and torture by security forces. Alongside his statement, he released video clips that he claimed showed opposition figures Sam Mugumya and Muwanga Kivumbi in detention.
One of the clips appears to show Mugumya, a former aide to opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye, struggling to walk around a compound in what appears to be a rehabilitation exercise. He is wearing a yellow campaign T-shirt bearing President Yoweri Museveni’s image. Nakiwala says she watched the footage several times and eventually recognised her husband towards the end of one of the videos.
“Someone captured and shared a picture from those videos with us. At first we thought it was not him, but when I watched that video several times, I was able to see him at the end and even his feet are visibly identifiable to anyone who has known him,” she said. The family had earlier turned to the High Court, seeking an order requiring the authorities to produce Gody through a habeas corpus application.
However, the court dismissed the application after all the respondents, including the Attorney General, Special Forces Command, UPDF, Uganda Police Force and Internal Security Organisation (ISO), denied having him in their custody. Nakiwala says the family cannot understand why Gody remains missing without being brought before court like other suspects.
She says Gody’s disappearance has also left his mother, Joyce Aduba, distressed. Gody, she says, was the family’s sole breadwinner and also paid his mother’s medical bills. “We’re going through pain; his mother is down, and I’m struggling to sustain the family. Sometimes I visit other political prisoners in Luzira and wish that my husband was also in a known prison like others. Yes, their families are going through a lot, but at least they know where their loved ones are, not like us,” Nakiwala said.
The family fears Gody could suffer the same fate as John Bosco Kibalama, a National Unity Platform supporter who disappeared in 2019 and whose whereabouts remain unknown. In 2023, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja told Parliament that authorities had traced Kibalama to a detention facility, but later withdrew the statement. The UPDF has since said Kibalama is alive and living outside Uganda but has not publicly provided evidence or disclosed his location.
The army has also described Mabonga as a deserter and distanced itself from the footage he released. Police have consistently advised families of missing persons to report the cases at the nearest police station to facilitate investigations. The security agencies had not publicly confirmed Gody’s whereabouts by the time of publishing this story. Their earlier position before court was that he was not in their custody-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
