Protesters, you're playing with fire, the president of Ugandan warns

Yoweri Museveni, the president of Ugandan, has issued a warning to demonstrators organizing a Tuesday anti-corruption march: you are “playing with fire” and will not be allowed.

According to a Sunday BBC broadcast, the demonstrators—the majority of whom are young Ugandans—are calling for an end to official corruption and claim that their inspiration came from previous protests in neighboring Kenya.

In a televised speech, Museveni reportedly said that the demonstration organizers were collaborating with foreigners to instigate disorder in Uganda and issued a warning that the government would not tolerate hindrances to the nation’s advancement.

“We are busy producing wealth… and you here want to disturb us. You are playing with fire because we cannot allow you to disturb us,” he said.

Protest organizers have stated that they will go ahead with the march despite the police’s refusal to give them authorization, citing their constitutional right to peaceful demonstration.

“We don’t need police permission to carry out a peaceful demonstration. It is our constitutional right,” one of the main protest leaders, Louez Opolose, told AFP.

A protester, Shamim Nambasa, speaking with AFP, said, “Our starting point in the fight against corruption is parliament… and the demonstration is on irrespective of what police is saying.”

The US and UK recently imposed sanctions on high-ranking officials, including parliamentary speaker Anita Annet Among, over suspicions of corruption. This comes amid mounting dissatisfaction over corruption in Uganda, which is the reason for the march.

President William Ruto of Kenya, meantime, has demanded an end to the demonstrations calling for his resignation and an end to “bad governance.”

Since June 18, at least 50 people have died and 413 have been injured as a result of the protests, which have occasionally descended into violence, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

According to PUNCH Online, there is a planned demonstration in Nigeria that is gathering steam. It is slated to occur between August 1 and August 10, 2024.

The purpose of the demonstration is to raise awareness of Nigerians’ economic struggles.

Although the demonstration has drawn support from some places, different stakeholders have expressed conflicting opinions and reservations about it.

The appeals for the nationwide protests have been deemed treasonous by the Presidency.

In a tweet on his X account, Special Advisor to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga asserted that the protest organizers were also responsible for the October 2020 “destructive” #EndSARS protests.