(Nairobi) – The Ugandan authorities have brought abusive criminal charges against an opposition politician, Muwanga Kivumbi, apparently based on his criticism of the president’s son, who is head of the armed forces, Human Rights Watch said today.
On July 29, 2026, the authorities charged Kivumbi, a deputy president of the National Unity Platform (NUP) Uganda’s main opposition party, with “inciting violence” and “managing an unlawful society,” after unlawfully detaining him for 19 days in an unrevealed location the day after he was released on bail for separate politically related charges. Kivumbi is one of several government critics that the military has in recent weeks arbitrarily seized, held incommunicado, and handed over to courts for abusive prosecutions.
Muwanga Kivumbi. © NUP Media
“Ugandan authorities are weaponizing the justice system to harass and target its critics and opposition,” said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to end these malicious prosecutions, and instead ensure accountability for the numerous rights abuses and scaling up of human rights violations in the country.”
On July 10, armed plainclothes and uniformed soldiers dragged him from his car at a police roadblock and drove off with him to an unrevealed location. On the morning of July 19, the soldiers left him at a police station in Kampala, media reported.
The police took him 66 kilometers away to a magistrate’s court in Butambala later that day, where they brought new charges against him. Based on the charge sheet, Kivumbi’s charges arise from a speech he made to his supporters at a public gathering in Butambala on the day of his initial release.
The authorities did not specify the basis for the charges in the charge s
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