Why Museveni hates NGOs

Many within Uganda’s civil society say these clampdowns point to the ever shrinking civic space in the country.  They say the trend has been escalating since 2010 when security agencies attacked and disrupted the work of the “Black Monday” anti-corruption work and the Free and Fair election campaign among others.

In the same year, security agencies raided offices of a number of NGOs and halted operations of their bank accounts. However, at no point did these agencies provide any credible information regarding the allegations levelled on these organisations.

Earlier, in 2016, the government introduced a new law that tightened the rules for NGO operations in the country. It established an NGO Bureau with powers to blacklist, suspend or even revoke the permits of any organization found contravening the law.

Last year, more than 12,000 civil society organisations were told they would no longer operate in Uganda. Observers said the move was the beginning of a purge of NGO activities in the country. This followed the government’s review of the number of officially registered NGOs in Uganda. Only 2,118 were given the greenlight to operate in the country.

In August, this year, the government suspended operations of over 200 humanitarian agencies including 85 international groups accusing them of non-compliance with operational procedures. There were at least 277 registered refugee organisations doing humanitarian work in Uganda refugee settlements.

In June, last year, the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, an umbrella of 140 NGOs in Uganda said its members had suffered 34 office break-ins since 2011 but received no reports from police investigations.

In August, last year, the Financial Intelligence Authority directed banks to unveil financial details of 13 NGOs; including the Democratic Governance Facility and ActionAid International Uganda.

In October, this year, the National Bureau for NGOs disrupted the work of NEW-U, a platform of NGOs engaged in the monitoring of the 2021 elections.

Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative told The Independent on Dec. 17 that whatever Ugandan NGOs are experiencing is because of an NGO law that resembles a “hydra monster.”

“It can be used by anyone to achieve certain purposes,” Sewanyana told The Independent, “The biggest challenge are the laws on our Statute books. The laws need to be reformed in order to uphold human rights standards.”    “As long as the law remains the way it is, the NGOs will keep falling to the machinations of the state.”

Opiyo also adds that Museveni’s assault on civil rights organisations is not about to stop.

“I think he is just going to continue beyond the elections,” Opiyo told The Independent, “There is nobody in Uganda who is sane and believes that Museveni is here for long; everybody sees an opportunity for a transition and they are waiting for it.”

“So I think after the 2021 elections, President Museveni will unleash more violence to contain that urge for transition and become completely totalitarian.”