Jailed, exiled, silenced
Smothering East Africa’s political opposition
Since the presidential campaign kicked off in Uganda in this month, the most prominent opposition candidate, Bobi Wine, has been tear-gassed, arrested and beaten by police, held in solitary confinement, and charged in court for holding campaign events in violation of Covid restrictions.
“I know they want me dead as soon as yesterday,” said the musicianturned-lawmaker, real name Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi.
“We are campaigning every day as if it’s the last.”
Wine is one of several high-profile opposition leaders in East Africa who have recently been jailed, exiled or silenced as they challenge entrenched leaders and political parties. Heads of state have used the coronavirus as a pretext to strengthen their grip on power and introduced laws to smother dissent.
There has been less international outcry than usual, with many watchdog countries preoccupied with the pandemic and domestic concerns.
And the United States, under the isolationist President Donald Trump, has been far less engaged in defending human rights globally. The country has also lost credibility to intervene internationally as the world saw US police forces caught on video violating human rights at home.
In Uganda, which votes in January, Wine has faced intense intimidation in his bid to unseat President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country with an iron grip since 1986.
In Tanzania, Tundu Lissu, a lawyer and former lawmaker, received death threats as he campaigned for president and was hounded out of the country after an October election that some international observers said was undermined by fraud.
And in Ethiopia, media mogul and opposition figure Jawar Mohammed has been lingering in prison for almost five months on charges of terrorism.
“Opposition movements are facing some of the most dire challenges to their existence since this era of democratisation first took hold in the region in the early 1990s,” said Zachariah Mampilly, co-author of the book Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change and a professor of international affairs at the City University of New York.
As opposition leaders face off with powerful establishments, these “regimes are revealing the violent sides that have always undergirded their power,” Mampilly said.
The challenge has been acute in Uganda in recent weeks, where Wine’s arrest November 19 sparked protests that led to the death of at least 45 and the arrest of almost 600 others, according to police.
Authorities have accused Wine of holding political gatherings that flout coronavirus guidelines, which stipulate that campaign rallies be limited to 200 people. But security forces, he said, have not clamped down on rallies supporting Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement.
“There’s an absolute double standard in operating procedures when it comes to enforcing the rules,” Wine said. “It’s like the coronavirus is only affecting the opposition.”
Although Uganda’s electoral commission has encouraged candidates to campaign on radio and television instead of holding rallies, Wine said authorities have raided studios to stop his appearances or ordered hosts to cancel them.
A Ugandan police spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about Wine’s treatment.
In Tanzania, observers said the elections of October 28 were marred with violence, the arrest of opposition leaders and widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities. In the hours after President John Magufuli won a second term, the main opposition contender, Lissu, said he started receiving death threats. Lissu already survived one assassination attempt in 2017, went into exile and returned this year to run for president.
Hassan Abbas, a spokesman for the Tanzanian government, denied the allegations of threats.
In Ethiopia, Mohammed, the most formidable political challenger to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, was arrested in July and charged with terrorism, after being linked to a wave of unrest that followed the June killing of singer Hachalu Hundessa.
Mohammed, 34, hails from the same Oromo ethnic group as Abiy and helped propel him to power in 2018. Mohammed runs the Oromia Media Network and has a large following on social media. But the two have since clashed over their vision for Ethiopia’s future.
The country has now plunged into crisis since Abiy, who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, started a military operation to subdue the northernmost Tigray region in early November. The assault has pushed more than 40,000 people to flee Tigray into Sudan, drawing concerns from the United Nations as well as regional and global leaders.