{"id":422,"date":"2024-07-24T10:29:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T10:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/?p=422"},"modified":"2024-07-24T10:29:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T10:29:57","slug":"police-arrest-anti-government-protesters-in-uganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/police-arrest-anti-government-protesters-in-uganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Arrest Anti-Government Protesters In Uganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several people were arrested in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, for defying an official ban and joining sporadic anti-corruption protests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Some 60 people, including a prominent TV presenter and three young protest leaders, were rushed to court and jailed after marching against the country’s parliament on Tuesday, lawyers said.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for almost forty years,\u00a0 warned before the event that the protesters were “playing with fire”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The march was organized on social media amid anger over long-running corruption allegations\u00a0 involving several high-ranking government officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

The protests were partly sparked by demonstrations in neighboring Kenya last month, which forced President William Ruto to abandon planned tax hikes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The police earlier said that they\u00a0 refused to grant permission for the march and would not allow any demonstration that would threaten the “peace and security” of Uganda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Riot officers were seen manning roadblocks on Tuesday, while members of the security forces blocked roads and stood guard around Parliament House.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the images, protesters held placards reading “Stop Corruption” and called parliament a “den of thieves”. Another said: “We are peaceful protesters”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others showed police brutalizing protesters\u00a0 and pushing riot cars behind them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are tired of corruption,”\u00a0 Samson Kiriya, a protester, told the AFP news agency through the bars of a van after his arrest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among those arrested was well-known TV and radio presenter Faiza Salima and three organizers of the demonstration – George Victor Otieno, Kennedy Ndyamuhaki and Aloikin Praise Opoloje.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Uganda Law Society president Bernard Oundo said\u00a0 50 people were charged in one session.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This was a rushed trial. They were arrested and taken to court in a very short time and remanded to prison without securing them bail,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We will ensure these people receive justice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Uganda’s main opposition leader, Bobi Wine, said that security forces had surrounded the Kampala headquarters of his party, the Platform for National Unity before the march.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said some of his party officials were “forcibly arrested” and\u00a0 offices were turned into “army barracks”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Writing on X about the march, Bobi Wine,\u00a0 real name\u00a0 Robert Kyagulanyi, said: “Salutations to all who have courageously marched and are still marching against corruption and misrule – even in the face of very brutal actions by the military and police!<\/span><\/p>\n

“The cowards have been picking up young people whose only crime is lifting up a placard.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He added that legal and welfare teams will be provided to those who need them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom and the United States imposed sanctions on several Ugandan officials, including parliament speaker Anita\u00a0 and three former or current ministers, over alleged\u00a0 corruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: BBC News \"\"<\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several people were arrested in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, for defying an official ban and joining sporadic anti-corruption protests.\u00a0 \u00a0Some 60 people, including a prominent TV presenter and three…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}