By Katumba Gerald.
Uganda has been marked with deterioration in fundamental human rights environment over the past years since the NRM Government came into power.
President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected in January 2021 in a general election marred by violence, election malpractices and widespread abuses.
Security forces arbitrarily arrested and beat opposition supporters and journalists, killed protesters, and disrupted opposition rallies.
The authorities in Uganda on several occasions restricted right to freedom of movement and assembly, in particular for political opposition leaders and supporters, and violated rights to freedoms of association and expression.
Shortly before the elections, the government shut down the internet for five days, and restricted access to social media sites including X and YouTube for a month. The authorities indefinitely blocked access to Facebook after the network announced it had taken down a network of accounts and pages linked to the government.
Two days before the January 14, 2021, elections, the Uganda Communications Commission ordered internet service providers to block social media access. The next day, the government shut down internet access across the country for five days.
The authorities restored partial access to social media websites, excluding Facebook, in February. During election campaigns, the authorities restricted media coverage of opposition party candidates, in some instances beating and shooting at journalists with rubber bullets a case in point an incidence which happened in Masaka where one Kasirye Ashiraf a Journalist linked to Media team of the then Presidential Candidate Kyagulanyi Robert Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine was shot on a rally.
In February 2021, military police beat at least 10 journalists covering opposition presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, as he delivered a petition to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Kampala over the abuses against his supporters.
Security forces conducted a spate of abductions and arrests of opposition supporters, government critics, and other people for allegedly participating in protests over the November 18, 2020 arrest of Kyagulanyi in Luuka, Eastern Uganda.
On March 4, 2021, the then Internal Affairs Minister Maj.Gen.Jeje Odongo presented a list to parliament of 177 people in military detention who had been arrested between November 18, 2020, and February 8, 2021, allegedly for participating in the protests as well as for being in “possession of military stores,” and “meetings planning post-election violence.”
On March 8, in a public letter to the media, President Yoweri Museveni said that 50 people were being held by the Special Forces Command, a unit of the Ugandan army, for “treasonable acts of elements of the opposition.”
In May 2021, police detained 24-year-old law student Michael Muhima for a tweet parodying the police spokesperson, charged him with “offensive communication,” and denied him access to lawyers or family for five days before he was released on bail.
Until today abductions are still ongoing, opposition supporters being the main victims, towards the end of February Wandegeya Katanga Division Councillor Kemigisha Sharon was allegedly abducted after an exclusive interview with a popular online Media platform TV10 GANO MAZIMA.
