By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA (Reuters) -Ugandan security forces detained dozens of young people on Tuesday, a rights group said, as they took part in a banned protest rally in downtown Kampala against official corruption and alleged human rights abuses by the country’s rulers.
A Reuters witness saw the detentions being made, while a video posted by NTV Uganda on the X social media platform showed a small group of young people being intercepted and detained by police.
The protesters waved placards and shouted slogans denouncing corruption. One wore a T-shirt bearing the words “Speaker Must Resign.”
At least 45 people were detained by security personnel during the crackdown, according to Chapter Four, a Ugandan human rights group that is offering legal services to the detainees.
A police spokesperson was not immediately available to confirm how many people had been detained.
At least five of those detained were charged and remanded in custody until July 30. They were accused of being a “common nuisance” and also being “idle and disorderly”, according to a charge sheet seen by Reuters.
Authorities had banned the protest, citing intelligence they said showed criminally-minded youths might hijack it in order to loot and vandalise.
Soldiers and police were deployed around the parliament building and in the centre of the Ugandan capital with the aim of deterring any protesters.
All roads to the parliament were blocked off, with only lawmakers and other parliamentary staff having access, and NTV Uganda images showed military armoured personnel carriers patrolling the area.
Ugandans with businesses near parliament were experiencing difficulty getting to their premises.
“It’s like a war zone,” Edwin Mugisha, who works in Kampala, told Reuters, referring to the military patrols.
On Monday police sealed off the offices of Uganda’s biggest opposition party, accusing it of mobilising for the protests, and detained some party officials, including its lawmakers.
The party denied it was organising the march, but said it supported it.
Opposition leaders and rights activists say embezzlement and misuse of government funds are widespread in Uganda. They have long accused President Yoweri Museveni of failing to prosecute corrupt senior officials who are politically loyal or related to him.
Museveni has repeatedly denied condoning corruption and says whenever there is sufficient evidence, culprits including lawmakers and even ministers are prosecuted.
(Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa, Clarence Fernandez and Gareth Jones)
