Uganda: Arbitrary suspension and detention of student leaders

UGA 002 / 0525 / OBS 023
Judicial and administrative harassment /
Arbitrary detention /
Torture /
Obstacles to freedom of assembly
Uganda
6 May 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Uganda.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed of the ongoing harassment of 27 students at Kyambogo University in Kampala, Uganda, including Akiso Benjamin, the Guild President and a social justice and environmental activist and Kabuni Evelyne, Murozi Abel, Kiwumulo Paul, Winnie Nansenja, and Muguluma Wahab, student leaders defending student rights at the university.

On April 23, 2025, student leaders at Kyambogo University in Kampala convened a general assembly to address issues affecting students, including late registration surcharges, missing marks, delayed release of results, and the request for students who had paid at least 70% of their tuition to be allowed to sit for end-of-semester exams.

During this assembly, police officers stormed the meeting and violently disrupted it by firing tear gas canisters and live bullets. Peaceful students were dispersed across the campus, and 20 of them were brutally arrested by armed police forces. As they were taken from Kyambogo University to Jinja Road Police Station in Kampala, some were subjected to torture by being forced under police trucks and kicked by officers.

On April 24, ten of the 20 arrested students were released from the police station, while the remaining ten, including their leader, Akiso Benjamin, continued to be held in custody.

On April 25, the ten students still detained were brought before a Grade One Magistrate at Nakawa – one of the five divisions of Kampala -, to be charged with three counts under the Penal Code : “incitement to violence” (article 51), “unlawful assembly” (articles 65-75), and “participating in a riot” (articles 65-75). They were subsequently remanded to Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Kampala, where several contracted illnesses. On April 29, 2025, all ten students were granted cash bail set at UGX 100,000 each, despite their limited financial means as unemployed students.

On the same day, these ten students, along with seven other students, were suspended from the university for 30 days for “disrupting university activities”. Among the 17 suspended students, six are Guild leaders. The suspension, effective April 29, prohibits them from accessing university premises, thereby preventing them from sitting for their examinations scheduled for May 7. This disciplinary measure was imposed without affording the students a fair hearing before the University Council’s Welfare and Student Affairs Committee.

The Observatory strongly condemns the ongoing judicial and administrative harassment of students peacefully advocating for their rights, which appear to be aimed only at restricting their freedom of peaceful assembly guaranteed under article 29 (1) of the Constitution of Uganda. Persistent reports of peaceful assemblies continuing to be unduly prohibited and repressed, relying on disparate provisions, were outlined in 2023 in the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee’s concluding observations on the second periodic report of Uganda, demonstrating a worrying trend.

The Observatory is also worried about the disproportionate use of force by police officers in response to peaceful assemblies. This concern echoes that of the UN Human Rights Committee which has raised alarm over reports of assemblies being frequently dispersed through disproportionate force. The United Nations Committee against Torture has already expressed in 2022 deep concerns that torture and ill-treatment were widespread and frequently practised in Uganda, and recommended the immediate suspension of suspected perpetrators from duty while investigations are carried out.

The Observatory urges the Ugandan authorities to immediately put an end to any act of harassment, at the judicial and administrative level, and any act of intimidation against peaceful students. The Observatory requests the authorities to drop all charges against the 20 students and quash their suspension without delay to ensure they are able to sit for their final examinations on May 7.

The Observatory further calls on the Ugandan authorities to carry out immediate, thorough, and impartial investigations into the acts of torture and ill-treatment committed against the students who participated in the general assembly on April 23, as well as those perpetrated against the 20 arrested students, and to bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with international human rights standards.

Action required:

Please write to the Ugandan authorities asking them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of the 27 students and all students, student leaders and human rights defenders in Uganda ;
2. Drop all the charges against the 20 students and quash the suspension against the 17 students, and put an end to all acts of harassment - including judicial and administrative harassment - against them and all human rights defenders in Uganda ;
3. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the acts of torture and ill-treatment against the students who participated in the general assembly and those arrested, while ensuring their protection, and bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with international human rights standards and concluding observations of United Nations treaty bodies;
4. Guarantee, in all circumstances, that student leaders in Uganda are able to carry out their legitimate activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all undue restrictions, including judicial and administrative harassment, arbitrary arrest, deprivation of liberty or other arbitrary sanctions.

Addresses:

• Mr Kaguta Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, E-mail: museveni@starcom.co.ug / aak@statehouse.go.ug, X: @KagutaMuseveni

• Ms Robinah Nabbanja, Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda, Email: ps@opm.go.ug, X: @RobinahNabbanja

• Mr Jeje Odongo Abubakher, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda, X: @UgandaMFA

• Hon. Norbert Mao, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda, Email: info@jlos.go.ug / info@justice.go.ug

• Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Attorney General of Uganda, Email: info@jlos.go.ug / info@justice.go.ug

• Ms. Jane Frances Abodo, Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda, Email: admin@dpp.go.ug

• Ms. Mariam Fauzat Wangadya, Chairperson, Uganda Human Rights Commission, Email: uhrc@uhrc.ug

• H.E. Mr. Marcel Robert Tibaleka, Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Email: chancery@ugandamission.ch

• H.E. Mirjam Blaak Sow, Embassy of Uganda to the EU in Brussels, Belgium. Email: ugembrus@brutele.be, info@ugandamission-benelux.org

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Uganda in your respective countries.

***

Geneva-Paris, 6 May 2025

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: alert@observatoryfordefenders.org

• Tel FIDH: + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18

• Tel OMCT: + 41 22 809 49 39