Four years down the path, the 2018 treason case slapped on the People Power/ National Unity Platform party Principal Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert aka Bobi Wine and 32 others remains a mysterious file within the judiciary.The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (D.P.P) claims it played its part vehemently and committed the case file to the Gulu High Court for hearing where to date nothing in that regard has taken place.
The group including Bobi Wine was sent to Gulu High Court to stand trial over several charges arising from alleged pelting of President Museveni’s motorcade with stones following the Arua Municipality by-election fracas on August 6, 2018.
These suspects are accused of treason, failure to prevent obstruction of traffic flow, confusion or disorder during a public meeting contrary to Section 10, 1(c ), (f), (3) and (4) of the Public Order Management Act as well as failure to give right of way contrary to Section 176(2) of the Traffic and Road Safety Act.
Bobi Wine, and 32 others are among other cases charged with denial of right of way to president Yoweri Museveni during the August 2018 Arua by-election final campaigns, and also the alleged damage of the presidential motorcade after one of the vehicles on the fleet of Gen. Museveni was damaged.
Bobi Wine, Mityana municipality MP Hon Zaake Francis, Kassiano Wadri, and other People Power supporters were violently arrested on August 13, 2018 and charged with treason among others. Their case has however flopped 4 years later after their bail was approved.
Speaking to media last year, Ms Jacquelyn Okui, the spokesperson of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, said they played their part when they sent the group to the High Court.
“When we commit accused persons to the High Court for trial, it is an indication that we are ready to prosecute the matter. Committal is usually done when investigations are complete,” Ms Okui said in March last year.
Judicial spokesperson Jameson Karemani however attributes the snail paced trial of the Arua 33 to shortage of manpower as he says the judiciary is incapacitated and short of judges to expedite the case.
Ugandans residing in the diaspora have taken it upon themselves to expose what they see as one of the greatest betrayals of modern African democracy the continued funding and support of African dictatorships by Western nations, especially the brutal regime of General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. For decades, these courageous Ugandans have organized demonstrations outside embassies, high commissions, and notably outside Uganda House in London, carrying placards, chanting freedom slogans, and calling on the international community to halt its enabling role in sustaining one of Africa’s longest-surviving autocracies.
These protests are not mere acts of symbolism. They are expressions of deep-rooted frustration, sorrow, and outrage. They are a direct response to decades of betrayal, impunity, and bloodshed. These brave men and women many of whom were forced into exile due to political persecution have vowed to remain the voice of the voiceless back home. Their unwavering activism speaks not only to the resilience of the Ugandan spirit but also to the urgent need for global accountability.
General Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, promising democracy, freedom, and a fundamental change in the governance of Uganda. Four decades later, the reality could not be more disheartening. What began as a supposed liberation movement soon devolved into a regime characterized by severe repression, widespread corruption, militarism, nepotism, and a horrifying disregard for basic human rights.
Museveni’s rule has been marked by the persecution of journalists, arbitrary arrests of opposition leaders, the assassination and abduction of political dissidents, and the militarization of civilian life. Security operatives and military personnel act with impunity, abducting youth, torturing civilians, and suppressing dissent all under the guise of maintaining national security.
What is even more disturbing is that all this is happening under the watchful eye of the international community, with funding, training, and arms supplied in large part by Western allies such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Uganda diaspora accuses Western powers of blatant hypocrisy, championing democratic values at home while enabling autocratic regimes abroad. Year after year, millions of dollars flow from Western coffers into Museveni’s government under the pretense of promoting development, security, and good governance. In reality, much of this aid is diverted to strengthen Museveni’s grip on power. It bankrolls the military, funds the police state, and reinforces the very institutions responsible for silencing Uganda’s pro-democracy movement.
From the iron-fisted crackdowns on peaceful protests to the brutal imprisonment of political opponents such as the countless supporters of Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine there is overwhelming evidence that Western funds are aiding repression rather than reform.
The Ugandan diaspora, therefore, poses an important question: How can the West claim to support democracy and human rights while simultaneously sponsoring a dictator who has turned Uganda into a blood-soaked prison for dissenters?
The diaspora protests are driven not by politics, but by pain. The pain of lost loved ones. The pain of young lives cut short. The pain of mothers crying for disappeared sons. Under Museveni’s regime, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, abductions, and torture have become routine. The government targets not criminals, but young Ugandans who dare to dream of a better future. Young people whose only crime is wearing red berets, chanting People Power, or aligning with the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP).
Families are torn apart as security forces abduct and detain activists incommunicado. Torture chambers infamously known as safe houses are used to crush the spirit of resistance. The judiciary, now an extension of the executive, offers no justice. The legislature has been reduced to a rubber stamp. Civil society is under siege.
It is this horrifying reality that propels Ugandans abroad into the streets. Their protests are a cry for the world to open its eyes to the genocide unfolding in slow motion.
Complicity by the West, When Aid Becomes a Weapon
What the diaspora is making clear through their activism is that Western funding is not neutral. It comes with consequences. Financial aid that goes into the hands of a tyrant becomes a weapon of oppression. The diaspora protesters argue that this aid is not only misappropriated but extended with either gross negligence or deliberate complicity. After all, how can nations with advanced diplomatic and intelligence machinery be unaware of what their money is funding?
The Group of Seven (G7) nations, along with institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, must be held to account for the roles they play. The diaspora’s call is straightforward: Stop financing the suffering of Ugandans. Stop aiding Museveni’s dictatorship.
A Global Appeal: Redefining International Solidarity
These demonstrations by Ugandans in the diaspora are not merely internal affairs. They are part of a broader global appeal to redefine international solidarity. In an era where democracy promotion has become a buzzword, the Ugandan crisis forces a moral reckoning. The West must ask itself whether it truly believes in democracy for all or only for its own citizens.
The diaspora calls upon Western citizens, human rights organizations, international media, and progressive governments to stand in solidarity with the Ugandan people. Not with empty words, but with action. With sanctions on individuals responsible for atrocities. With investigations into foreign aid misuse. With diplomatic pressure. With suspension of military cooperation. But most importantly to stop being the pay master of our oppressors
Voices from the Frontline: The Courage of the Diaspora
What makes this movement particularly remarkable is the personal cost paid by those involved. Many of the protesters were once victims themselves exiled journalists, tortured youth, threatened activists, and political asylum seekers. They have rebuilt their lives abroad but remain tethered to Uganda by an unbreakable thread of love, pain, and duty.
Their protests are not performative they are acts of resistance and remembrance. Every chant outside Uganda House is a tribute to a disappeared brother. Every placard is a call to bring back tortured sisters. Every march is an affirmation that Uganda will one day be free.
United Kingdom Leads the Charge
The United Kingdom has become a key battleground for this diaspora-led movement. Outside Uganda House in London, a defiant crowd gathers regularly to remind the world of Uganda’s suffering. With drums, megaphones, Ugandan flags, and revolutionary songs, these patriots have turned the streets into a courtroom, the placards into affidavits, and the slogans into testimonies.
They have refused to be silent. They have refused to let the memory of the dead fade. They have refused to let the world normalize dictatorship. For this, they deserve not just applause but our deepest respect.
The Final Message: It’s Time to Choose
To the Western powers: the time has come to choose. Will you stand with the people of Uganda, or will you continue funding their oppressor? Will you support democracy in practice or only in theory? Will you champion human rights universally or selectively?
The diaspora has spoken with clarity, conviction, and courage. Now it is time for the international community to listen and to act.
To all our comrades in the United Kingdom and around the world who continue to raise their voices against tyranny your fight is just, your efforts are noble, and your courage is the torch lighting the way to a free Uganda.
THE ROLE OF LAWYERS IN DEFENDING SOCIAL JUSTICE IN A DICTATORSHIP
H.E Bobiwine at ULS
This morning, Bobi Wine, the President of the National Unity Platform and leading voice of Uganda’s pro-democracy movement, delivered a powerful and deeply personal keynote address to the members of the Uganda Law Society and the Ugandan public. His message was as bold as it was urgent: the legal profession must rise to its moral responsibility of promoting social justice by defending human rights and electoral integrity no matter the cost.
With his signature mix of clarity and courage, Bobi Wine opened by reflecting on his own journey and the dream that had been with him since childhood — the dream of becoming a lawyer. A dream that, like many of Uganda’s youth, was delayed by poverty, dictatorship, and lost opportunity, and only came to fruition last year, in his 40s, after years of struggle and sacrifice.
This was not just a personal anecdote — it was a political indictment. Bobi Wine emphasized that the State has a non-negotiable responsibility to subsidize life for its citizens — to provide education, health care, opportunity, and dignity — because only then can every Ugandan have a fair shot at a meaningful life. In his words, “A government that abandons its people to fend for themselves, while looting national resources, is not just negligent. It is illegitimate.”
He reminded the audience that his own delayed education was not due to laziness or lack of ambition, but due to the structural violence of a corrupt and unequal system — one that millions of Ugandan children are still trapped in. “My story is the story of so many,” he said. “We are not where we are because we lacked potential, but because the system was designed to hold us back.”
CALLING OUT JUDICIAL COWARDICE MASQUERADING AS LEGAL DOCTRINE
Bobi Wine then turned his fire toward a subject rarely discussed so openly in Uganda — the complicity of the Judiciary in the oppression of Ugandan citizens. With unflinching honesty, he condemned what he called “judicial cowardice dressed up as legal doctrine.”
He boldly called out the Judiciary’s long-standing tendency to hide behind conservative legal principles to justify injustice and protect military dictatorship. “Since independence,” he said, “judicial officers have repeatedly used ‘doctrine’ as a shield — not to defend justice, but to protect power.”
He especially criticized two specific doctrines that have been used to dismiss legitimate electoral challenges: the ‘Political Question Doctrine’ and the ‘Substantiality Test.’ These, Bobi Wine argued, have become legal tools of repression — used by the Supreme Court to throw out compelling evidence of vote rigging, electoral violence, and fraud in Museveni’s elections.
In one of the most striking moments of his speech, Bobi Wine stated:
“Even when judges know that any single act of rigging—however small—was done to alter the final result… even when they know that no one rigs an election just for the sake of it, but to win it… even when they know that State-led electoral malpractice destroys the legitimacy of the entire election… they still go ahead to say it was not ‘substantial.’”
And why? Because, in Bobi Wine’s words, “They would rather feel safe than uphold their judicial oath.” These words struck deep, drawing the attention not only of those in the room but across Uganda.
LAWYERS MUST CHOOSE: SILENCE OR SOLIDARITY
Bobi Wine reminded lawyers that the law is not neutral. It either protects the people or it protects tyranny. He called on all legal professionals to choose courage over complicity.
“Lawyers, by their training and knowledge alone, must play a central role in achieving a just society. Their inaction in times of oppression makes them complicit. Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality—it is betrayal.”
He invoked the name of Chief Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka, Uganda’s first African Chief Justice, who was abducted and murdered by Idi Amin’s regime. “Ben Kiwanuka refused to bow to tyranny, and he paid with his life. Today, our lawyers fear even to speak. What are we becoming?”
Bobi Wine emphasized that no one is ever safe in a lawless nation. The judges, the lawyers, the politicians — all are vulnerable when a regime begins to devour its own people. “If law cannot protect the least among us,” he said, “then it will eventually fail to protect those who think they are safe.”
THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW UGANDA
But Bobi Wine’s message was not only one of condemnation — it was also a message of hope, resistance, and responsibility. He called on Ugandans — especially the legal fraternity — to reclaim the law as a tool of liberation, not repression.
He called on lawyers to:
Challenge bad laws and unconstitutional practices Stand up for victims of torture and political persecution Expose the abuse of State institutions by those in power Refuse to normalize impunity and dictatorship
He made it clear that Uganda is at a crossroads, and the legal profession must choose which side of history it wants to be on. “Will you be remembered as defenders of justice — or as enablers of oppression?”
He also reminded everyone that change will not come from the courts alone — but from the collective struggle of all oppressed people. That is why he called for a #ProtestVoteUg2026 — a defiant stand against dictatorship using the very weapon Museveni fears the most: the voice of the people.
“We are building a new Uganda — one built on justice, truth, and accountability. And in that Uganda, the law will serve the people, not those who brutalize them.”
A FINAL WORD
In closing, Bobi Wine warned of the cost of silence, but also affirmed the power of truth. He said the time for fear is over. The time for complicity is over. The time to stand with the people is now.
“Uganda is bleeding. Our children are growing up in fear. Our youth are being abducted, tortured, and murdered for demanding justice. The judiciary cannot keep playing dumb. The lawyers cannot keep hiding behind gowns. The time for polite silence is over.”
If the legal profession will not lead the charge for justice, who will? If the men and women trained to interpret and defend the law cower in silence, then what hope is left for the ordinary citizen?
The future of Uganda depends on a brave and principled legal fraternity. Not tomorrow. Not in some distant time. But now.
NUP LAUNCHES FUNDRAISING DRIVE FOR 2026 GENERAL ELECTIONS
Today at our headquarters in Makerere-Kavule, we have launched a global fundraising drive to raise money and other material resources necessary to take us through the forthcoming general elections. We have constituted a Committee led by Hon. Balimwezo Ronald Nsubuga to oversee this exercise. Other members of the Committee include Hon. Kaaya Christine Nakimwero and Ms. Fatuma Kassim.
Comrades who are supporting this cause have been categorized and they will receive certificates from one star to five star depending on the amount that they commit to this cause for instance those who qualify to attain certificates are those who donate UGX 100,000 and above.
We are grateful to party leaders, members, aspiring leaders, and members of the general public who turned up in droves today and contributed generously to the cause.
We humbly appeal to whoever wishes to contribute to either send your contribution through bank or mobile money (see poster below) or bring the contribution physically to our headquarters.
Every contribution is acknowledged with an official receipt, although contributions above UGX 100,000/= additionally get a Certificate of Appreciation. Contributions in cash or in kind (such as branding material, fuel, non-monetary services, etc) are all welcome.
Exclusive1 year ago