Uganda: Government’s failure to ensure accountability for past abuses, do not bode well for the 2021 general elections.
Police in Uganda have failed to investigate the allegations that security operatives tortured Kayagulanyi and 33 others in Arua in August 2018. Although the director for public prosecutions ordered the police to investigate the case, but up-to-date, o public announcements regarding the progress or conclusion of the investigations have been completed and no arrests made in connection with the allegations. Human Rights Watch in their World Report 2020 edited by Danielle Haas.
The Ugandan government continued to undermine freedom of expression by imposing new regulations on bloggers and website owners. In 2019, the government introduced new regulations requiring online operators to apply for authorization to host blogs and websites or risk being shut down. Government also censored media outlets, and arbitrarily detained outspoken critics of the president.
In April, the UCC directed 13 radio and television stations to suspend their staff, accusing them of airing programs that were “unbalanced, sensational and often give undue prominence to specific individuals,” after they aired news reports covering opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine. In the same month, police switched off three radio stations in Kabale, Jinja, and Mubende as they hosted prominent opposition leader Kizza Besigye.
These restrictions on expression and assembly, arbitrary detentions and prosecutions of outspoken critics, and the government’s failure to ensure accountability for past abuses, do not bode well for the 2021 general elections .
Read the World Report 2020 here and Pdf
Photo by Abubakar Lubowa ,courtesy of Uganda Press Photo