Jump to navigation

Uganda

Opposition targeted as Museveni regime fears protests

Bobi Wine says security forces besieged his party’s headquarters ahead of anti-government demonstrations

The decision by the Ugandan state to seal off the headquarters of Bobi Wine’s National Unity Party (NUP) on 22 July, ahead of a major planned anti-corruption demonstration, betrays its fears about youth-driven protests taking root.

Wine says that the protests, which will include a march on the parliament buildings in Kampala, similar to the anti-Finance Bill protests in Nairobi on 25 June, have been organised by young Ugandans and not by the NUP but that they do have his party’s support.

‘We support them with all our might because we are #PeoplePower and we absolutely believe in the Power of the People,’ Wine posted on X, adding, ‘We support every effort to protest against injustice, corruption and misrule.’

He said, ‘The effort by the regime to clamp down and make it look like an NUP initiative is meant to weaken it because they want to make it appear like a partisan matter.’

A police spokesperson described it as a precautionary move ahead of anti-government protests planned for 23 July.

Since a wave of countrywide protests organised online by youth activists forced President William Ruto to abandon last week a controversial Finance Bill and taxes worth US$2.7 billion and then dismiss his ministerial team, African governments across the continent have been watching anxiously for similar popular uprisings.

The protests, which are due to coincide with a major demonstration in Nairobi, could be the first regional test following the success of the Generation Z movement in Kenya.

As in Kenya, the protests are focusing on corruption and poor governance by President Yoweri Museveni’s government and the political elite.



Related Articles

Soldiers of tomorrow

The Uganda People's Defence Force is under siege at home and abroad. Its mediation in Sudan looks even less credible than its attempts to dig its way out of its greedy and failing ...


Fighting on a new front

The United States’ containment policy has failed and, with its regional ambitions strengthened, Al Shabaab is back on the front foot

President Yoweri Museveni welcomes African Union leaders to Kampala on 25 July playing a role he has made his own: military leader and regional policeman. Ugandan opposition politi...


The foreign fronts

Yoweri Museveni is lauded for his success at home; his foreign policy is not so popular

Kampala is caught in two regional conflicts. To the west, President Yoweri Museveni is a key supporter of the Front Patriotique Rwandais government in Kigali and shares its interes...


Warming up the Kenyatta-Museveni axis

Common interests are prompting more bilateral cooperation but the latest agreement over a pipeline will sorely test regional solidarity

In two weeks' time, when most of Africa's 54 leaders travel to New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, there will be much talk of shifting regional allianc...


Kith, kin and cosh

Army reshuffles ensure ruling family dominance and install tough officers to deal with regional unrest

The mid-January reshuffle of the upper levels of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF)was a characteristically careful balance of tribal allegiance and political planning desig...