Amnesty International has issued a call for the immediate and unconditional release of anti-corruption protestors detained by Ugandan authorities on July 23, 2024. The protests, which were aimed at highlighting the increasing corruption within the Ugandan Parliament, resulted in the detention of over a hundred young individuals. Tigere Chagutah of Amnesty International criticized the arrests, describing them as part of a broader clampdown on protest rights in the region. He emphasized that the Ugandan government’s heavy-handed tactics are designed to stifle dissent and silence critical voices against governmental corruption and human rights abuses.
A youth-led march against government corruption saw the involvement of several members from the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP). Joel Ssenyonyi, the parliamentary opposition leader, accused the police of employing excessive force during the arrests. Interestingly, despite the decentralized and social media-organized nature of the protest, Ugandan authorities had issued a ban on the march, citing public order concerns. President Yoweri Museveni had even warned that protestors were “playing with fire.”
This crackdown in Uganda mirrors a broader trend seen in neighboring Kenya, where youth-led decentralized activism against economic injustice has been gaining momentum. As detailed by Amnesty International, Ugandan authorities should immediately release all those detained solely for exercising their right to peaceful assembly, a right that Uganda’s constitution explicitly protects.
For more details, see the report by Amnesty International.