By Enyichukwu Enemanna
At least 42 Ugandan youths have appeared before a magistrate court and have been remanded in custody for flouting a ban on anti-corruption protest on Tuesday.
Protesters had on Tuesday taken to streets in the capital Kampala on chanting slogans and holding placards, calling for an end to corruption by lawmakers.
Bernard Oundo, President of Uganda Law Society, who was heading a team of lawyers representing the suspects announced on Wednesday that the 42 protesters who appeared in the magistrate court in Kampala late Tuesday were all remanded.
A charge sheet in the court outlined various offences against the protesters, including being “idle and disorderly” and being a “common nuisance”.
They pleaded not guilty and were ordered to return to court at different dates between July 30 and August 6.
Human Rights Watch said the arrests demonstrated the government of President Yoweri Museveni’s “lack of respect for people’s right to protest and express themselves.”
Yoweri had earlier cautioned that those planning to stage anti-government protest will be playing with fire.
The police had clamped down on the protesters who took to the streets against what they call rampant corruption and human rights abuses by the country’s rulers.
“Instead of being arrested and blocked from protesting, those people should have been given a platform and listened to,” Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at HRW said.
Protesters had say they draw inspiration from the neighbouring Kenya where the youths have in last couple of weeks staged an anti-government protests, calling for an end to bad governance and corruption.
Opposition leaders and rights activists have alleged that embezzlement and misuse of government funds are widespread in Uganda.
Heritage Times HT had earlier reported that UK and US governments imposed sanctions on Uganda’s parliamentary speaker, Anita Annet Among, earlier this year after she was accused of corruption.
The sanctions bar her from travelling to the UK and the US.
