Ahead of Uganda’s general election in January, the ruling party, led by President Yoweri Museveni, has arrested the principal opposition candidate Bobi Wine on multiple occasions, inflicted police brutality upon political activists, and now deported journalists from Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News, a Canadian public broadcaster. All of this has raised concerns about the legitimacy of the upcoming election.
In early November, opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine was arrested just after receiving his certification as a candidate for the country’s upcoming presidential election in 2021. After briefly being detained, he was released, but was then arrested again later in the month on November 18.
At the time, Wine’s team put out a statement saying that he has been “denied access to his lawyers and medical team” and that only the “army and police officers have access to him”, describing this as a “violation of his rights”. Although he has since been released, the protests that followed both of his arrests resulted in 54 deaths and 800 arrests in November alone, with the police reacting strongly to protests by his supporters.
Alongside this suppression of political opposition and activists, the Ugandan government has now begun deporting foreign journalists as well, in what critics say is an effort to shield Museveni’s administration from international criticism and obscure the harsh ground reality in the country. Three journalists— Margaret Evans, Lily Martin, and Jean-Francois Bisson—were arrested by immigration officers last week and held in detention for ten hours and then deported, despite possessing ‘official media credentials’.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Jacob Siminyu, refused to comment on the event, while the state-owned Uganda Media Centre’s executive director, Ofwono Opondo, tweeted at one of the deported journalists: “Do we really need you to scrutinise our electoral process to qualify as credible? Uganda reserves the right to admit foreign persons, including journalists. Good, stay where you are.”
Much of the brunt of Museveni’s iron grip on the country has been reserved for journalists, with the country ranking 125th out of 180 countries in the world press freedom index. Interestingly, the journalists deported were not even in the country to cover the election per se, but the coronavirus pandemic as a whole.
In fact, in September the ruling government increased the roadblocks for content-sharing and news platforms to publish information. Bloggers, online television and radio channels, online newspapers, and broadcasters must now obtain special authorization and permits from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) before October 5 to continue operations.
Museveni’s administration alleges that foreigners have been propping up the campaigns of the opposition to force a change in leadership. In fact, just last month, the bureau chief of another international news agency was arrested and detained on charges of assaulting a police officer during the 2016 election. However, he was released after it was learned that he was in the country to visit family. Likewise, employees of American and European non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have recently been ordered to leave the country on charges of attempting to incite ‘regime change’.
Under Museveni’s governance, Uganda ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in Africa. He emerged as a “freedom fighter and a liberator” in 1986, and has ruled the country for over three decades since; he is renowned for suppressing political dissent and opposition, and has overseen Uganda’s slow descent into a failed state. The judiciary essentially acts as an arm of his rule and the police do his bidding on the streets to clamp down on uprisings and protests.
Museveni didn’t hold elections for his first ten years in office, after which the implementation of a new constitution in October 1995 stipulated a strict two five-year term limit. This limit, of course, was removed in 2005, paving the way for him to run for re-election in February 2006. Similarly, in December 2017, the lower age requirement of 35 years and the upper age limit of 75 years were removed in anticipation of next year’s elections, allowing the National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) candidate to seek re-election once more.
Aside from his political corruption, Museveni has also failed to deliver on his economic promises. He put forth the National Development Plan, to focus on Uganda’s agriculture, tourism, and minerals industries, with a goal of becoming a lower-middle-income country by 2020 and an upper-middle income country by 2040. However, with an annual GNI per capita of just $780, Uganda has fallen well short of this goal, with the minimum GNI per capita required to be classified as a lower-middle-income country standing at between $1,036 and $4,045.
Against this backdrop of rising popular discontent and international scrutiny, Museveni has doubled down on his repressive strategies to curb political dissent, which has only incited further criticism of his rule and the legitimacy of Uganda’s upcoming election.
Uganda Deports Three Foreign Journalists Ahead of January Election, Alleges Interference
Three journalists from Canadian public broadcaster CBC News were ordered to leave the country, with the ruling government growing increasingly critical of political interference by foreigners.
December 2, 2020
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni SOURCE: EDUARDO MUÑOZ / REUTERS