Paris, Nairobi, Dar es Salam, 19 June 2025. In Uganda, the unlawful arrest and detention of opposition figures and arbitrary trial of civilians in military Courts has been normalised following the recent passing of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Amendment Bill 2025, on 20 May by Parliament, that has been assented by the President and is now a law as of 16 June 2025. These actions by the Executive are a clear demonstration and reminder of the state’s attempt to claw back the gains that come with the enactment of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda. This Act contravenes the 2025 decision of the Supreme Court declaring unconstitutional the prosecution of civilians in the General Court Martial and military courts. The passing of the bill by Parliament undermines Article 92 of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda that prohibits Parliament from passing any law that would alter the decision of a court or render it ineffective. Furthermore, the Act has given more institutional autonomy to the Court Martial, which possibly undermines civilian judicial oversight, and violates the doctrine of separation of powers using stronger military offences against them.
Escalation of the repression in Uganda
"The blatant disregard for the rule of law and basic democratic rights of citizens is of serious concern. The general trend of muzzling dissenting voices, including those of leading Human Rights Defenders, in the run-up to the Uganda and Tanzania general elections must stop", said Alice Mogwe, FIDH President.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, whose office in Uganda closed in 2023 following the decision by the government not to renew its mandate, recently expressed its concerns over the passing of the UPDF Bill in Parliament urging the President to reject it because broadening the military court’s jurisdiction to try civilians would contravene Uganda’s international human rights law obligations.
Several cases of surveillance, serious violations of the rights to peaceful protest and expression through acts of judicial harassment, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention of activists, lawyers and students advocating for human rights, including environmental law, have already been reported since the beginning of the year and confirm the escalation of repression. A key opposition figure, Dr Kizza Besigye, is still being subjected to a frivolous trial following his abduction from Kenya and subsequent unlawful extradition to Kampala where he was initially presented before the General Court Martial and then moved to a civilian Court in Uganda, charged with the offence of "treason", that carries the death sentence. Another key opposition figure, Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine, the President of the National Unity Platform, who vied for the presidential election in 2021 and his political party still face challenges of political intimidation, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and ill-treatment. Eddie Mutwe, his bodyguard, was unlawfully abducted on 27 April 2025, then subjected to torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by Ugandan security operatives. He was charged with aggravated robbery for stealing mobile phones, cash and other personal items in Masaka Magistrates court, days after the head of the military admitted to detaining him in his basement and torturing him. His case is currently before the High Court for further handling. Excessive use of force in by-elections further foreshadows electoral violence by security forces in the elections scheduled for January 2026.
Alarming situation in Tanzania
The situation in Tanzania is equally alarming. In the aftermath of the 2024 local government elections and in the lead up to the 2025 general election, the country has witnessed a worrying escalation in political intolerance, repression, characterised by abductions, enforced disappearances, and targeted violence against opposition figures and civil society. The November 2024 local elections were marred by mass disqualification of opposition candidates and gender-based cyberviolence against women candidates, undermining electoral fairness.
FIDH member organisation in Tanzania, the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHCR)’s 2024 Human Rights Report documents 100 such cases of human rights violations between 2015 and 2025, with spikes in 2022 and 2024. UN human rights experts recently called on the authorities to stop "the enforced disappearance of political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists, as a tool of repression in the electoral context". The arrest of opposition leader Tundu Lissu on treason charges, and the recent arrest and alleged torture of activists from East Africa who had travelled to observe Lissu’s trial demonstrates how low states in the region have sunk in their quest to clampdown on civic and political space for expression. The activists, who included Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan lawyer Agather Atuhaire, were both arrested by Tanzanian authorities, held incommunicado, and reportedly subjected to torture and sexual violence before being deported and abandoned at borders points for their countries. Prominent Kenyan politician Martha Karua and two other politicians were also denied entry into Tanzania and turned back at the airport, a move widely criticized as a violation of regional cooperation principles and civic freedoms. In early 2025, Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a Tanzanian journalist and human rights activist, was abducted and later released in Nairobi, Kenya. She was targeted because of her public criticisms of the Tanzanian government.
Shrinking civic space in Kenya
Kenya has also shown a similar trend of shrinking civic space and attacks on civil society since the Gen-Z protests of June 2024 that resulted in the killing of 65 peaceful protesters, and enforced disappearances of 89 human rights defenders. Since the last elections in 2022, the wave of extra-judicial killings, abductions, torture, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, the criminalization of the rights and freedoms to assembly, expression, media, association, demonstration, and petitioning of government authorities have all escalated uncontrollably. Recently, our organisations were alarmed to learn that three civilians were shot and wounded by armed civilian goons deployed to suppress dissent, while protesting in Nairobi against the shooting of a hawker by police earlier in June. Kenya in violation of its constitution and international obligations, has perpetuated unlawful extradition of citizens of its neighbouring countries found within its borders, even while knowing very well they are at risk of torture and persecution in their countries. The unlawful extraditions violate international obligations under international human rights treaties including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the 1951 Geneva Convention among others. These include the arrest and deportation to Juba of South Sudanese activist Morris Mabior Awikjok Bak on 4 February 2023, as well as the arrest and deportation of four Turkey refugee nationals, in violation of the non-refoulement principle under the Refugee law. The recent cases of kidnapping of targeted nationals from the East Africa region, as well as the hosting of two major players in the armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - with the Alliance du Fleuve Congo (AFC), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allied militias, infamous for their brutal reign of terror in Sudan - violates Kenya’s commitment to justice, accountability, and the promotion of peace and security in the region. The normalisation of transnational repression has seen close business allies of the regime file a suit in a French Court against whistleblower Nelson Amenya, who exposed the controversial Adani Airport deal, which would have seen Kenya loose control of its main Airport to a foreign company, an act that was widely disapproved by Kenyans.
FIDH and its member organisations in Tanzania and Kenya call on the national authorities in these countries, the regional institutions and the international community to take urgent action to:
– Open democratic space and enable civil society to work peacefully in the region;
– Reject the UPDF Act in Uganda;
– Prevent more repression and violence to happen ahead of the elections in Uganda and Tanzania;
– Open and conduct impartial and transparent investigations and prosecution on attacks against civil society, including cases of enforced disappearances in Tanzania and Kenya;
– Bring to an end transnational repression and ensure all those detained as a result of this practice are released forthwith and ensure such actions are not condoned in the future.