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Why Museveni hates NGOs

Leonard Okello of the Uhuru-Institute (L) and Arthur Larok, the former Country Director of ActionAid Uganda at a Black Monday event. COURTESY PHOTO

Many within Uganda’s civil society say these clampdowns point to the ever shrinking civic space in the country.  They say the trend has been escalating since 2010 when security agencies attacked and disrupted the work of the “Black Monday” anti-corruption work and the Free and Fair election campaign among others.

In the same year, security agencies raided offices of a number of NGOs and halted operations of their bank accounts. However, at no point did these agencies provide any credible information regarding the allegations levelled on these organisations.

Earlier, in 2016, the government introduced a new law that tightened the rules for NGO operations in the country. It established an NGO Bureau with powers to blacklist, suspend or even revoke the permits of any organization found contravening the law.

Last year, more than 12,000 civil society organisations were told they would no longer operate in Uganda. Observers said the move was the beginning of a purge of NGO activities in the country. This followed the government’s review of the number of officially registered NGOs in Uganda. Only 2,118 were given the greenlight to operate in the country.

In August, this year, the government suspended operations of over 200 humanitarian agencies including 85 international groups accusing them of non-compliance with operational procedures. There were at least 277 registered refugee organisations doing humanitarian work in Uganda refugee settlements.

 

In June, last year, the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, an umbrella of 140 NGOs in Uganda said its members had suffered 34 office break-ins since 2011 but received no reports from police investigations.

In August, last year, the Financial Intelligence Authority directed banks to unveil financial details of 13 NGOs; including the Democratic Governance Facility and ActionAid International Uganda.

In October, this year, the National Bureau for NGOs disrupted the work of NEW-U, a platform of NGOs engaged in the monitoring of the 2021 elections.

Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative told The Independent on Dec. 17 that whatever Ugandan NGOs are experiencing is because of an NGO law that resembles a “hydra monster.”

“It can be used by anyone to achieve certain purposes,” Sewanyana told The Independent, “The biggest challenge are the laws on our Statute books. The laws need to be reformed in order to uphold human rights standards.”    “As long as the law remains the way it is, the NGOs will keep falling to the machinations of the state.”

Opiyo also adds that Museveni’s assault on civil rights organisations is not about to stop.

“I think he is just going to continue beyond the elections,” Opiyo told The Independent, “There is nobody in Uganda who is sane and believes that Museveni is here for long; everybody sees an opportunity for a transition and they are waiting for it.”

“So I think after the 2021 elections, President Museveni will unleash more violence to contain that urge for transition and become completely totalitarian.”

One comment

  1. https://ajws.org/blog/just-married/

    So,
    The Above group (above link/”American Jewish World Service”) is said to be behind funding the socalled LGBTQI+ group/s in Uganda?
    Appalling or is it Not_it is partly a “JEWISH” Financed Global institution???
    This certainly raises eyebrows. Why ?
    Because “JEWISH” would or does certainly imply “Constantine’s Rome Global Agenda” which, ofcourse since time immemorial is Mainstream/Contemporary Christianity__
    BUT DOES CHRISTIANITY SUPPORT “LGBTQI+ GROUPS” IN ITS “BIBLICAL/RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE”???

    And when President Museveni denounces these “Homosexual Foreign Groups”, he is quickly characterised as unjustly intolerant towards “these civil rights advocacy groups”___

    Why are most Ugandans too Blind & naive Not to clearly see what exactly their President is trying to “Unmask” so that every one can see the “Dangerous Masked intent” of some of these NGOs (Why Museveni Hates NGOs)….

    Ugandans or Black Africans at large Must be very very careful about following very Dangerous foreign bandwagons because of the “enormous Billions of Dollars” that are provided to support such socalled “Human Rights Groups” (“LGBTQI+ GROUPS”)….

    Perhaps it holds very True….
    “MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL”….

    But why compromise your human soul’s “HIGHER direction” for just MATERIALISM (Money/Wealth), Power, SEX (Heterosexual or Homosexual), Higher status/fame…etc ??
    Are these “temporary Breadcrumbs” really worth compromising one’s HIGHER_Self in the Grand scheme of MORALITY?
    What is really Morality anyway….?
    (Because as it is, 99% of the human race on Earth has No substantial Moral inclination/s towards Listening so DEEPLY to & withIN its own core Higher soul blueprint to gain a true sense of HIGHER_direction.
    Most humans basically follow only the insatiable Desires/Passions of the Flesh & yet ironically the human body/flesh is really just “temporary”!!)

    Is MONEY a definite curse of our past, current or future human civilization/s….?
    YES…it is!!!

    is MONEY a necessary Evil of “our own times”…?
    NO…it is Not!!!
    (Mankind is the “evil specimen” of “our own times”)

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