The Ugandan government has revealed that it has ordered more than 50 non-governmental organisations to suspend operations.
This is a major escalation of its efforts to tighten control over civil society.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the 54 groups affected include the country’s most prominent rights organisation, Chapter Four, as well as charities, religious, environmental, and electoral democracy groups.
The shutdown was ordered ‘with immediate effect’, the National Bureau for NGOs, part of the ministry of internal affairs, disclosed in a statement.
It said the groups had failed to comply with legislation covering their activities, including operating with expired permits, not filing accounts or not registering with the authorities.
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Some of the organisations ordered to close had taken part in an election monitoring operation on polling day in January which was raided by security forces and during which several of their leaders were arrested.
The heavily disputed poll saw President Yoweri Museveni returned for a sixth term in office after a violent campaign marked by the harassment and arrest of opposition figures, attacks on the media, and the deaths of several dozen people.
Chapter Four executive director Nicholas Opiyo confirmed his group had received the government’s order to close.
‘We’ve always acted above board & repudiate any representation of unlawful conduct on our part,’ he tweeted, describing the situation as a ‘misunderstanding’.
Despite repeated court appearances since then, the government has not produced any evidence to support its allegations.
A group of 14 major international donors, including the European Union and the United States, had protested at Opiyo’s arrest.
Charity Ahimbisibwe, who leads the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy (CCEDU) — another of the shuttered organisations — described the government action as “extremely unfortunate”.
Ahimbisibwe said the move came after the organisation had received repeated summons to government offices since it released a report that had catalogued malpractice during the election.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK