
The executive director of Chapter Four Uganda, Mr Nicholas Opiyo, with the US Ambassador to Uganda, Mr William Popp, during the Human Rights Convention 2024 in Kampala November 27, 2024. PHOTO/ ABUBAKER LUBOWA
A section of lawyers and human rights defenders have poked holes into Uganda’s rule of law and human rights records, saying the country has reached a state where citizens need to rise up and demand better from the government.
Speaking at the Human Rights Convention 2024 in Kampala yesterday, the lawyers and human rights defenders said the Constitution, which was promulgated in 1995, has been the most abused, with not less than four major amendments.
LGBTQ+ rights defenders also criticised the government for enacting and enforcing laws that,they argue,have created unbearable conditions for them to remain in the country.
Efforts to get a comment from the government were futile by press time.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Norbert Mao, who was expected at the function,did not attend.
When contacted after the function, he originally did not answer our calls but later called back ,but the call dropped before we could ask about the concerns raised.
Several follow-up calls were unsuccessful because he kept the number busy.
Meanwhile, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, did not also answer our calls.
Dr Busingye Kabumba, the executive director of the Human Rights and Peace Centre and a lecturer at Makerere University Law School, said Ugandans have been made to believe that the Constitution gives them the power to decide the affairs of the country; how they must be governed and how the country should
be run but the reality is the complete opposite.
“I actually think the Constitution was built on a lot of lies for many reasons. From article one, that power belongs to the people, this is Uganda and that's not quite the truth. Article 2 says the Constitution is the Supreme Law. The idea that there is an independent Judiciary in Uganda, we know the truth. The idea that there is even a Parliament, the idea that there is even an Executive, these are all lies told in the Constitution,” he said.
He said Uganda’s crisis dates back to 1988 when the process of making the Constitution started, a year before the ragtag rebels who took power in 1986 should have handed it over to the civil authority.
Dr Kabumba said the powers that be argued that it was impossible to complete the exercise in a year and, therefore, pushed the transition to civilian rule to 1996.
Mr Nicholas Opiyo,a human rights lawyer and the executive director of Chapter Four Uganda, which organised the function, said Uganda has had violent elections since the National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels took power.
He, however, said elections should not be violent.
“We can have a discussion about how to ensure peaceful elections,proper public discussions, the transparency of the law and electoral process,” he said.
Mr Opiyo said the spaces for such engagements are getting narrower with the closure of several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that offered platforms for such discussions.
”We need to change the paradigm that views civil society as a security concern. We are development partners. We are nobody’s agent. We are Ugandans exercising our franchise. The fact that we get money from outside does not make us foreign agents. If that was the case, government would be the biggest foreign agent,” he said.
He said as the 2026 elections draw closer, the attitude toward NGOs should not remain as hostile as it was during the 2021 General Election.
“During the last elections, some NGOs were closed, bank accounts frozen, leaders arrested and sources of financing cut off. GDF was closed and some people who were supporting the NGOs were deported,” he said.
Mr George Musisi,a city lawyer, said the human rights abuses and violations are increasing despite the existence of constitutional provisions that condemn the same.
He said the atmosphere under which elections are organised is getting more hostile every.
“From the last election to date, we have seen some of the rights we took as basic, enshrined in the Constitution such as the right to freedom from torture, being brought to court within 48 hours, arbitrary arrests carried across the border, trying of civilians in court martial and extra-judicial killings,” Mr Musisi said.
He added: “We know that the [families of the] people who were killed in the streets of Kampala in 2020 have not been compensated. We are seeing the general state of impunity that people are losing property like land. The question now should be, do we still believe in the Constitution or we should come up with the new consensus that it no longer make sense to us.”
According to Mr Musisi,it doesn’t make sense for Uganda to go into another election when “we still have missing Ugandans as a result of the [last] election and we have pending court cases as a result of elections”.
He said Ugandans should collectively put an end to that kind of impunity and bring perpetrators of human rights abuse to book.
Ms Faith Odhiambo, the president of Kenya Law Society, said across the region, constitutionalism and rule of law is under serious threat.
“And so constitutions are quite important because it helps define the term of a president, which is quite crucial. Look at the world over.Even, let's say,in the US, as good as people may have loved Obama, the constitution was clear. They should only serve two terms, and they had to be for that. The challenge is how we can set really a constitution even in this country that cannot be easily manipulated or changed without the consent of the people?” she questioned.
She said while the courts in Kenya are independent, the situation in Uganda is quite different.
Mr Elvis Zutic, the chief of party of Rights for All, East or West Management Institute, said while Uganda has made some progress,the journey to full citizen participation in the democratic process has many obstacles to overcome.
“The restrictions on civic spaces, bureaucratic hurdles, and rising political tensions remind us that our jobs are incomplete. The Rights for All, which I am honoured to lead, seeks to address these challenges.Our overarching mission is to ensure that Ugandans not only understand their rights, but support to exercise and defend people,” he said.
He added that several partners have been working tirelessly to build and strengthen the capacities of other partner civil society organisations and protect human rights defenders.
“During the election season, HRDs (human rights defenders), including journalists who are present here, face intimidation, detention, and harassment.
Through rapid response activities and emergency support activities, we are committed to ensuring that HRDs never stand alone and are fully supported in their efforts to seek justice,”Mr Zutic said.
“As a part of our legacy effort, we are launching an initiative to provide legal support for human rights defenders and prodemocracy actors in rural areas. We plan to deploy 18 young lawyers across Uganda, focusing primarily on underserved regions. Our vision is to establish ten legal practices dedicated to providing direct legal assistance to those who need it most,” he added.
The US Ambassador to Uganda, Mr Williams Popp, said the US government is committed to supporting Uganda’s democratic processes. He said human rights are not granted but are inherent.
“In the struggle for rights and justice, advocates often face intimidation, financial pressures, and financial strain. All who have advocated for civil rights and human rights face even challenges on a daily basis from the ordinary sense of the repression by the state.Progress is often slow, court cases are long, public support for human rights defenders is low, yet,human civil rights advocates and defenders like you have still positively remained committed,” he said.
Ms Sarah Kihika Kasande, the head of the Uganda International Centre for Transitional Justice, said even when the situation seems bleak, there must be room for hope and optimism that things can turn around.
“Most constitutions are developed at times that we describe as critical challenges, where the society is meant to reflect on what happened in the past, those factors that created grievances, those factors that created conflict, those factors that created human rights violations,” she said.
She said while under the social contract with the state, there are the obligations of the state to ensure that each and every Ugandan enjoys its rights, unfortunately, the situation is different.
Ms Clare Byarugaba, the diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Chapter Four, said the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Law in 2023 worsened the situation to a point that members of the LGBTQ+ community face severe reappraisals.