Uganda charges opposition lawmakers, supporters over protest

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KAMPALA (Reuters) – Police arrested 14 Ugandan opposition officials and supporters on Monday as they marched through their capital towards the Kenyan embassy to protest against Nairobi’s decision to detain and deport a group of their colleagues, local media said.

The arrests and last month’s deportations come as both Kenya and neighbouring Uganda have been rocked by anti-government demonstrations by youth and opposition activists – though the streets of Uganda’s capital were otherwise quiet on Monday.

Kenyan authorities on July 23 detained 36 members of Uganda’s opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) who had travelled there for a training course, lawyers for the group said.

They were deported to Uganda where they were charged with terrorism-related offences last week – charges they denied, their lawyers added.

On Monday, 14 other members of the opposition party, including two lawmakers, marched through Kampala to protest against the treatment of their colleagues, the Daily Monitor and other media reported.

They were arrested for “for participating in unlawful assembly activities,” police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said, and later charged in a magistrate’s court with being “a public nuisance,” according to a charge sheet seen by Reuters.

They all pleaded not guilty. Four of the accused were released on bail while the rest were remanded to prison and will return to court on Aug. 7, according to an FDC official who was in court but did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the party.

Opposition critics and human rights campaigners have long accused President Yoweri Museveni’s government of using fabricated charges to clamp down on his opponents. Government officials deny this.

Museveni, 79, has led the East African country of 46 million since 1986.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Bhargav Acharya and Andrew Heavens)