Three arrested in Mbarara, Uganda for mock presidential funeral

Kampala, Uganda | AFP |  Three people carrying a coffin marked with President Yoweri Museveni’s name were arrested in western Uganda on Friday and will be charged with “illegal assembly”, police said.

The three men were arrested in Mbarara, 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of the capital Kampala, after holding the mock funeral procession despite police orders not to gather for a protest.

“The three carried a coffin with the inscription ‘Rest in Peace, Museveni’ and a portrait of the president”, said Samson Kasasira, a regional police spokesman.

Kasasira said they had been denied police permission to hold a protest against a proposed consitutional amendment removing presidential age limits that would allow Museveni, now 72, to run for a sixth consecutive term in 2021.

Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986 when he took power at the head of a rebel army and won his current mandate in February last year.