Ugandan protesters planning to move forward with a banned anti-corruption march on Tuesday are “playing with fire,” President Yoweri Museveni warned.
“Some elements have been planning illegal demonstrations and riots,” President Museveni said in a televised address late Saturday.
Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist since 1986, accused the protesters of including “elements working for foreign interests,” without providing further details.
Earlier on Saturday, Ugandan police informed organizers that they would not permit the planned protest in the capital, Kampala, citing intelligence that “some elements were trying to take advantage of the demonstration to cause chaos in the country.”
“Demonstrations can only be allowed under our mandate as long as they do not cause public disorder and disrupt the lives of lawful citizens,” Ugandan police operations director Frank Mwesigwa told AFP.
Despite this, protest organizers told AFP they vowed to proceed with the demonstration regardless.
“We don’t need police permission to carry out a peaceful demonstration,” said one of the main protest leaders, Louez Aloikin Opolose, on Saturday. “It is our constitutional right.”
The protesters hope to march past parliament, accusing it of tolerating corruption. “Our starting point in the fight against corruption is parliament, and the demonstration is on irrespective of what police are saying,” protester Shamim Nambasa said.
Transparency International ranks Uganda low on its corruption perceptions index, placing it 141 out of 180 countries. The anti-corruption protesters have been closely monitoring the deadly demonstrations that have rocked neighboring Kenya for more than a month.
The Kenyan protests, which began as peaceful rallies against controversial tax hikes, evolved into a wider anti-government campaign, with activists demanding action against corruption and alleged police brutality.
Since the demonstrations began on June 18, at least 50 people have been killed and 413 injured, according to the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
