Uganda Reverses Ban on Public Gatherings
In preparation for the highly contested 2016 elections, a local council candidate rode through Bukedea, a town in eastern Uganda, as his followers cheered him on. (Wikimedia Commons)
Uganda’s Constitutional Court nullified a highly controversial segment of a public order law on March 26, ending a five-year-long prohibition on public gatherings, according to the International Center for Transitional Justice. The law was used to justify a crackdown on protests and political activity.
According to Justice Cheborion Barishaki, who was quoted in Chapter Four Uganda, a human rights nonprofit, the contested section eight of the Public Order Management Act (POMA) granted the inspector general of police “supernatural powers” to stop or disperse public gatherings.
Barishaki was joined by three other justices—Kenneth Kakuru, Geofrey Kiryabwire, and Elizabeth Musoke—in the four-to-one decision that POMA severely violated the constitutional right to freedom of assembly, according to the Daily Monitor.
The majority rejected the government’s argument that excessive protests would hinder economic growth and business operations, ruling that the minimal financial consequences failed to outweigh the centrality of free assembly to a thriving democracy. The court also called the government’s actions contradictory, as numerous state agencies had frequently used demonstrations to publicize their own programs.
The Guardian notes that the contentious provisions were remarkably similar to a previous law declared unconstitutional in 2005. Barishaki voiced confusion over these similarities and concern that it may foreshadow a government indifferent toward court rulings, saying that it “defies logic as to why parliament would rush to pass an act of parliament containing provisions that are pari materia [the same] as those that were declared unconstitutional.”
Joel Ssenyonyi, spokesperson for Wine’s People Power Movement, echoed these concerns, telling the Guardian in an interview that “this government is notorious for disregarding court orders.”
In 2015, Human Rights Watch condemned the widespread police obstruction of public gatherings in Uganda, citing the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and physical force to obstruct political meetings and rallies. On September 10, 2015, police in the eastern Ugandan town of Jinja threw tear gas canisters into a primary school, harming children. In the lead-up to the February 2016 elections, police used POMA to justify the prohibition and dispersion of rallies organized by opposition politician Kizza Besigye, as well as other local candidates.
More recently, on January 6, local police forces again applied POMA to suppress former-musician and opposition politician Bobi Wine (Robert Kyagulanyi), Amnesty International reports. According to Human Rights Watch, the national police force arrested Wine and fired teargas at his supporters, arguing that they had failed to follow the guidelines set out in POMA.
Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for East and southern Africa, said that the law, which was passed in August 2013 and came into force in November, “has for years been used as a tool of repression in Uganda.”
Amnesty International reported in December 2013 that a coalition of human rights organizations, including Chapter Four Uganda and Human Rights Network Uganda filed the petition that led to the court’s decision.