Three anti-corruption activists were arrested by security forces as they prepared to address a press conference in Kampala on Wednesday and have been charged with unlawful assembly.
The activists, Abigail Kalenda, Denis Pato, and Ruth Nalunkuma, were detained at Eliana Hotel in Ntinda, Kampala, just as they were about to speak to reporters about the ongoing protests against corruption in Parliament.
Security forces, including police and the army, raided the hotel, surrounded the venue, and arrested the activists before they could address the media. The trio was swiftly taken to Kira Road Police Station and later brought before City Hall Court, where they were charged with unlawful assembly.
According to the charge sheet, “Pato Denis, Kalenda Abigail, and Nalunkuma Ruth on the 24th day of July 2024 at Eliana Hotel Ntinda in the Kampala district, with other persons being assembled with intent to carry out some common purpose, conducted themselves in such a manner as to cause persons in the neighborhood reasonably to fear that the persons so assembled would commit a breach of peace or would by such assembly needlessly and without any reasonable occasion provoke other persons to commit a breach of peace.”
These arrests add to the growing list of activists detained on Tuesday for peacefully protesting against corruption in Parliament. Police have not disclosed the exact number of protesters arrested in connection with these anti-corruption demonstrations.
The anti-graft protests began on Tuesday when young people took to the streets of Kampala to march to Parliament and deliver their petition to Speaker Anita Among. They demanded that Speaker Among step down, citing her significant responsibility for ongoing corrupt practices in Uganda’s legislative body. Additionally, the demonstrators called for the resignation of four backbench commissioners of Parliament, who have faced intense scrutiny and criticism for controversially awarding themselves a substantial sum of 1.7 billion shillings as “service awards.”
