International rights activists demanded Thursday that the Ugandan government release scores of protesters who had been jailed and charged for participating in anti-corruption rallies this week.
Ugandans flocked to the streets of the capital Kampala on Tuesday, inspired by widespread protests against the government in neighboring Kenya, which were mostly spearheaded by Gen-Z activists, to demand action in the aftermath of multiple high-profile fraud scandals.
About 60 people, including a prominent TV and radio presenter and three young protest leaders, have been remanded in custody on charges including being a “common nuisance”, according to their lawyers.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled with an iron fist for nearly four decades, told the marchers that they would be “playing with fire” if they went on despite a police ban.
On Thursday, he commended the efforts of the security services during the rallies, saying in a statement on X that “bad” elements were at work, including “funding from foreign sources that are always meddling in the internal affairs of Africa”.
Riot police were out in force on Tuesday as various groups of people demonstrated, with some calling for the resignation of parliament speaker Anita Among, who has been suspected of complicity in a fraud scandal.
“The heavy-handed tactics used by the Ugandan government to stifle and silence peaceful protestors show a manifest clampdown on dissent,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa.
“Ugandan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those who were arrested solely for exercising their right to peaceful assembly and remain unlawfully detained,” Chagutah said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday that the colonial-era “common nuisance” offence was “long-misused” by the government to suppress legitimate demonstrations.
“This latest crackdown on protesters is a blatant violation of the rights to peaceful assembly and free speech, guaranteed in Uganda’s constitution and international law, and is indicative of the authorities’ intolerance toward dissent.”