Uganda\u2019s hardline President Yoweri Museveni has warned citizens planning anti-corruption protests Tuesday that they are \u201cplaying with fire.\u201d <\/p>\n
The upcoming protests come after a wave of deadly anti-government demonstrations that rattled neighboring country Kenya where at least 50 people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to figures released by the National Commission on Human Rights. <\/p>\n
Museveni, 79, who has ruled the East African nation with an iron fist for nearly four decades, said in a televised address on Saturday that the anti-corruption march will not be allowed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat right\u2026 do you have to seek to generate chaotic behavior? \u2026 We are busy producing \u2026 cheap food, other people in other parts of the world are starving\u2026 you here want to disturb us. You are playing with fire because we cannot allow you to disturb us\u2026\u201d, Museveni said in the three-hour-long wide-ranging address. <\/p>\n
Many young Ugandans say on social media they plan to go ahead with the march to the country\u2019s parliament despite the country\u2019s police refusing to grant a permit for the protest. <\/p>\n
The Uganda Police Force described the planned protests as \u201cpotentially anarchic\u201d in a statement on Monday, warning it \u201cshall not tolerate disorderly conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n
Some defiant youth protesters who plan to join the march on Tuesday have begun sharing their photos on social media, urging fellow citizens to remember them if they don\u2019t make it home alive. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust in case I get abducted or I die in the march, you can use this (photo) for creating awareness. Otherwise, tell mum I played a fundamental role in saving my country! I know she will be happy!\u201d, said one activist Ashiraf Hector on X. <\/p>\n
Another wrote: \u201cTomorrow, very early in the morning, I will join my fellow young people as we march to parliament against escalating corruption in Uganda. We will come face to face with murderers and in case things go south for me, this is my official portrait.\u201d <\/p>\n
A group of lawyers and activists said in a letter on Sunday that the police could not, by law, stop peaceful protests. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe police cannot prohibit a demonstration from proceeding but have powers to regulate it to ensure it takes place within confines of the law,\u201d the letter said while urging President Museveni to \u201censure that the constitutional right to assemble, demonstrate peacefully \u2026 is not violated with impunity by security agencies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine said on Monday he supported the protest which he clarified was \u201corganized by the young people of Uganda\u201d and not his NUP party. <\/p>\n
Wine raised the alarm that his party\u2019s secretariat had been cordoned off by security forces and some party leaders had been \u201cviolently arrested\u201d ahead of the Tuesday march. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe effort by the regime to clamp down and make it (the planned protest) look like an NUP initiative is meant to weaken it because they want to make it appear like a partisan matter,\u201d he said in a statement on X. <\/p>\n
Uganda grapples with widespread government corruption with an estimated Sh. 10 trillion ($2.7 billion) in public funding diverted each year, according to its anti-graft body, the Inspectorate of Government (IGG). <\/p>\n
Last year, it scored 26 on Transparency International\u2019s Corruption Perceptions Index which ranks countries on a scale of zero to 100, with zero meaning \u201chighly corrupt\u201d and 100 signifying that a country is \u201cvery clean.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe thieves are parasites that must be stamped out,\u201d Museveni said about his administration\u2019s fight against graft last month, adding that his ruling NRM party \u201cdoes not victimize anybody without proof (of corruption).\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why some people think that the NRM is soft on corruption,\u201d he said, stating that some corruption cases against public officials were being decided in court. <\/p>\n
However, those agitating for a protest are unimpressed with the government\u2019s handling of corruption, urging Ugandans to \u201c#March2Parliament\u201d on July 23 to \u201c#StopCorruption.\u201d\u2019. <\/p>\n
Some have also called for the speaker of the parliament, Anita Annet Among, to resign. She was among high-profile Ugandan politicians sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom for corruption earlier this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cAmong is designated due to involvement in significant corruption tied to her leadership of Uganda\u2019s Parliament,\u201d according to the US State Department. <\/p>\n
\ufeffAmong has pushed back against the sanctions, calling them \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d and claiming they were triggered by Uganda\u2019s defiance of international pressure after passing a strict anti-LGBTQ law last year. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Uganda\u2019s hardline President Yoweri Museveni has warned citizens planning anti-corruption protests Tuesday that they are \u201cplaying with fire.\u201d The upcoming protests come after a wave of deadly anti-government demonstrations that rattled neighboring country Kenya where at least 50 people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to figures released by the National Commission on <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}