Uganda is preparing for the general elections in January 2026, the Sého since President Yweeri Museveni came to power in 1986. As in the period prior to previous surveys, repression is increasing. This time, howling, it has spread beyond the borders of Uganda.
On November 16, 2024, the opposition politician Kizza Besigye and his OCTIC assistant are kidnapped in Nairobi, Kenya. Four days later, they resurfaced in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, processed in a military court for security positions. Rendering to Uganda, in a clear violation of international laws that prohibit extraordinary interpretation and due process, the two civilians faced military justice.
Indicated by this militarization of justice, Besigye and Lutale attracted a 40 -people defense team led by Martha Karua, the former Kenyan justice minister.
If the state mischief intended to silence the decision voices, they have done the opposite. Far from deterring others to speak, these judgments have caused a national conversation about human rights and the role of the military.
The head of the Uganda Defense Forces (CDF), General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of Museveni, has regularly commented on Besigye’s case on X. widely seen as a possible successor of his aged father, the Patpure Lega Lega, a political politician (PLU), despite the current legislation that prohibits the military officers of the military officers of the military officers of the military officers of the military officers.
Since 2016, the Uganda Supreme Court had delayed the ruling on a case, presented by Michael Kabaziguruka, former member of Parliament, challenging the trial of civilians before the military courts. Kabaziguruka, accused of betrayal, argued that his trial in a military court violated the right trial rights. As a civilian, he was not subject to military law. The case of Besigye and Lutale gave a renewed impulse to this.
On January 31, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that judging civilians in the military courts is not inditing, ordering that all ongoing criminal trials or slopes that involve civilians must immediately stop and be transferred courts.
Despite this ruling, President Museveni and his son have promised to continue using military courts in civil judgments. Besigye gets used to the hunger strike for 10 days in protest against delays in the transfer of his case to an ordinary court. The case has now become a fire test for Uganda’s military justice system before the 2026 elections.
Besigye and Lutale are not the only opposition politicians who face military justice. Dozens of supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP), led by Robert Kyagulanyi, popular known as Bobi Wine, have been convicted by military courts for various offense. These include using the Red Bina characteristics of NUP and another attire of parties that the authorities said they resembled military uniforms, despite their different differences. Numerous less known political activists also face positions in military courts as well.
Around 1,000 civilians have been prosecuted in the military courts of Uganda since 2002 for crimes such as murder and robbery by armed hand.
For the context, in 2005, the State modified the UPDF law to create a legal framework that allowed the military to prove civilians in the military courts. It was not a coincidence that these amendments occurred when the military tried to civilians arrested between 2001 and 2004, including Kizza Besigye.
The military judgments of civilians mock international and regional standards. They open possibilities of a burst or violations of human rights, including coercion confessions, opaque processes, unfair judgments and executions.
The Tripilianos in the military courts violates article 7 of the African Charter on the rights of humans and the peoples and principles and guidelines of 2001 on fair and legal assistance in Africa. The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, the Human Rights Agency of the Prime Minister of the Region, has long sentenced its practice in Uganda.
The opposition to military justice not only comes from the usual rooms. Religious Leaders Express Seed Group About Besigye’s Continued Detention After The Supreme Court Ruling, As Did Anita Among, Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament and Member of The Ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), WHOULD TASTETE TASTIT WHOUSTIVE WHOUSTIVE WHOULD BARKED HAPPENING TO DR BISIGYE, TOMORROW IT WILL HAPPEN TO ANY ONE OF TO US. “
After the court order and the general protest, Besigye and Lutale were transferred to a civil court on February 21. Besigye canceled his hunger strike. They remain in detention, like their lawyer. However, its transfer without release, in a process initiated by an illegality, remains failed. Despite the transfer of their case, dozens of more civilians still have their pending cases before the military courts, with little hope that they are transferred to civil courts.
For this reason, 11 groups such as Amnesty Kenya, the Union of Pan -African lawyers, the Kenyan Law Society, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission and the doctors of Kenya, Pharmacists and Dentists (KMPDU) require its immediate.
As Uganda addresses the elections, it is evident that the military courts are now a tool in the shed of President Museveni to use to silence the dissent. It is time for Uganda to take into account the ruling of the Supreme Court; For now it is thought that military justice is also in trial.
The opinions expressed in this article are typical of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.