Court to sentence Thomas Kwoyelo for 44 offences committed during militia’s 20-year rebellion and reign of terror
A former commander in the feared Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been convicted of crimes against humanity after the first such war crimes trial in Uganda.
Thomas Kwoyelo, who faced 78 counts related to crimes committed during the LRA’s bloody two-decade rebellion, had been waiting for years behind bars for a verdict in the landmark case.
Continue reading...Activists call move ‘absurd’, as Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of President Museveni, is accused of torture and abusing critics
Senior British government officials have congratulated the newly appointed head of the Ugandan army, a man accused of torture, in a move that has been called “absurd” and “disappointing”.
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s new chief of defence forces and son of President Yoweri Museveni, received a congratulatory letter from Britain’s most senior military officer, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, at a meeting with the British high commissioner, Kate Airey, and the British defence attache.
Continue reading...Documents containing allegations of torture filed to court in support of complaint made by Bobi Wine
The Uganda president, Yoweri Museveni, and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba have been accused of sponsoring violence and abusing critics in harrowing testimony filed before the international criminal court.
The submissions contain detailed allegations of the torture of opposition figures and activists who report being arrested arbitrarily and being held incommunicado in “torture centres”, where they were reportedly interrogated about their links with the opposition figure Bobi Wine and subjected to physical harm and indignifying treatment.
Continue reading...Global outcry over Museveni’s assent to draconian new anti-gay law, condemned as a ‘permission slip for hate and dehumanisation’
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts. The move immediately drew widespread international outrage as well as condemnation from many Ugandans.
Early on Monday, the speaker of the Ugandan parliament, Anita Annet Among, released a statement on social media confirming Museveni had assented to the law first passed by MPs in March. It imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, and anyone convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” faces a 14-year sentence.
Continue reading...The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, which is openly homophobic, is a direct recipient of UK aid money
The UK government is helping to fund the work of a virulently homophobic religious organisation in Uganda, whose leaders have backed a proposed law that would make identifying as gay a criminal offence, a report has found.
Analysing official data given to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), the report by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC) found a “staggering” number of connections between anti-LGBTQ+ organisations in Uganda and international aid donors, including the UK.
Continue reading...Stella Nyanzi talks about challenging Uganda’s President Museveni from her new home and why she had to leave the land she loves
The first few days of Stella Nyanzi’s new life in Germany have not been without their challenges, from navigating the TV and internet in a different language to finding the right school for her three teenagers. On the second day, the family went shopping for clothes – “thick jackets, mittens and scarves” – to see them through the fierce Bavarian winter. For her 14-year-old twins, who have lived their whole lives in sub-Saharan Africa and who insisted on wearing Crocs with no socks on the flight over, the sub-zero temperatures were a rude awakening.
At the centre of it all, however, has been deep sense of relief. Nyanzi, a 47-year-old outspoken scholar, poet and human rights advocate whose irreverent writing about Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, has seen her jailed twice, decided enough was enough. She has been accepted on a writers-in-exile programme run by PEN Germany, and has no intention of returning to Uganda while the 77-year-old Museveni is in power. And while there are many concerns about how she and her children are going to settle into Munich life, the sense of freedom is powering her on.
Continue reading...The author is being held after tweets criticising President Yoweri Museveni and his son
Ugandan satirical novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, who was named International Writer of Courage by PEN last year, has been illegally detained and tortured for criticising the president and his son, his lawyer said.
Gunmen came to the writer’s house on 28 December after a series of tweets about the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, including one calling him a thief and his son and presumed successor “an incompetent pig-headed curmudgeon”.
Continue reading...Victims describe systematic physical abuse, denial of basic legal rights and appalling conditions
Ugandan security services held children for months in prisons after successive crackdowns against opposition activists earlier this year, witnesses and victims have said.
Adults and children described systematic physical abuse, denial of basic legal rights and appalling conditions as they waited for trial on charges they claim were fabricated.
Continue reading...Roundup of opposition activists took place in May around date of swearing-in ceremony for President Yoweri Museveni
A new wave of repression in Uganda has led to the abductions of dozens more opposition activists by security forces and at least one alleged death. Several hundred people are thought to have been detained without trial in the east African country in secret prisons where they are subjected to a brutal regime of mistreatment. The country has suffered a series of crackdowns aimed at stamping out dissent since campaigning began for presidential elections late last year.
The trigger for the most recent repression by security services appears to have been the swearing-in ceremony of Uganda’s veteran president, the 76-year-old Yoweri Museveni, in May.
Continue reading...Interviews with more than 30 witnesses also used in investigation by BBC Africa Eye into deaths in Kampala
A single truck carrying eight police officers was responsible for a mass shooting in the centre of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in November last year in which at least four people died and many more were injured, an investigation by BBC Africa Eye has found.
The shootings were part of a crackdown on protests in Kampala following the arrest of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, a singer turned politician known as Bobi Wine, who was campaigning as a candidate for presidential elections held two months later.
Continue reading...Muhoozi Kainerugaba leads Special Forces Command, an elite military unit blamed for widespread abuses
Lawyers acting for the victims of a wave of abductions and torture by security forces in Uganda have named senior military commanders, including the president’s son, in a complaint to the international criminal court.
Prosecutors at the ICC are already reviewing an earlier submission from the opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, the former reggae singer known as Bobi Wine, describing widespread human rights abuses before presidential polls held in January.
Continue reading...Exclusive: victims and relatives describe suffering as repression intensifies under Yoweri Museveni
Hundreds of ordinary people suspected of supporting opposition politicians in Uganda have been snatched off the streets by security services in the worst wave of repression in the east African country for decades.
Many suffered systematic torture, detention in harsh conditions in often secret prisons and the denial of access to relatives or lawyers. The abductions, which were described in detail to the Guardian by survivors and relatives of victims, have led the UK and the US to express concern through diplomatic channels.
Continue reading...Party lawyer accuses re-elected president Yoweri Museveni of being an ‘agent of violence’
The Ugandan opposition leader and presidential challenger Bobi Wine has filed a petition at the country’s highest court to challenge the re-election of Yoweri Museveni in last month’s polls.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, wants the supreme court in the capital, Kampala, to nullify the victory of Museveni in the 14 January poll.
Continue reading...Judge ruled on Monday that house arrest of presidential challenger was illegal
Security forces in Uganda have withdrawn from around the home of presidential challenger Bobi Wine, complying with a ruling by a judge on Monday that rebuked authorities for holding the candidate under house arrest for 11 days.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has been unable to leave his home since 14 January, when Ugandans voted in an election in which the 38-year-old reggae star turned politician was the main challenger to 76-year-old Yoweri Museveni.
Continue reading...As opposition leader’s home is surrounded by army and police he says he fears for his life
The party of the Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine says it is preparing to challenge President Yoweri Museveni’s election victory as it condemned what it called the house arrest of Wine and his wife.
Amid growing international concern about the conduct of the election, Wine said in an interview from his house, where he is surrounded by army and police, that he was “worried about my life and the life of my wife”.
Continue reading...The president ‘shut down’ the internet as he won the election. You don’t stay in power for 40 years by taking risks
Days before Uganda’s presidential election – voting took place last Thursday – the incumbent, 76-year-old Yoweri Museveni, ordered that social media be switched off. People found their way around that by using virtual private networks, bouncing back online with memes mocking the idea that anyone would think it possible to bar people from being on social media in this day and age. Then, the evening before elections, the internet in Uganda was totally shut down.
The election that saw Museveni win with nearly 60% was shrouded in darkness. It is strange to move from social media’s infinite flow of information to nothingness. Instead, just silence apart from the news the government wants you to hear. Media houses that dare not to toe the government’s straight line risk being stopped from covering elections or even shut down.
Continue reading...Opposition candidate urges citizens to reject result of ‘most fraudulent election in country’s history’
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, won a sixth term in office on Saturday, extending his 35-year-rule in one of the country’s most turbulent election campaigns while his main rival Bobi Wine alleged widespread fraud and rejected the result.
Museveni won 59% of the vote, consolidating his grip on power and becoming one of the world’s longest serving leaders. Wine won 35%, according to the electoral commission’s final results from Thursday’s poll.
Continue reading...Bobi Wine, the Ugandan opposition leader, said soldiers were attacking his home. 'Our lives are in danger,' Wine said. 'Our only security is letting the world know what is happening.'
Lt Col Deo Akiiki, Uganda’s deputy military spokesperson, said the soldiers were at Wine’s house to protect him
Continue reading...Opposition leader tweets ‘we are under siege’, while President Yoweri Museveni takes early lead in election
Soldiers have stormed the home of Bobi Wine, the Ugandan opposition leader has said, as votes continued to be counted in the country’s election.
“We are under siege,” the pop star turned politician tweeted. “The military has jumped over the fence and has now taken control of our home.”
Continue reading...Bobi Wine’s challenge to Yoweri Museveni seen as emblem of Africa-wide generation gap
Ugandans have cast their votes after one of the most keenly watched and violent election campaigns in a generation, as the pop star turned politician Bobi Wine tries to unseat Yoweri Museveni from his 34-year rule.
Delays were seen in the delivery of polling materials in some places, including where Wine voted in the capital and opposition stronghold of Kampala. After he arrived to the cheers of a crowd and cast his ballot, Wine made the sign of the cross and then raised his fist and smiled. He said he was confident of victory.
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