‘We’re being targeted because of our work,’ says AFIEGO’s director.
On October 13, police stormed AFIEGO's offices, arresting several employees. A breast-feeding mother and another woman with asthmatic symptoms were among those arrested.
Dickens Kamugisha, the head of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), claims they are being targeted because of their work on land rights and the environment.
While the organization is operating within the law, he claims that some government officials are working hard to keep it from raising issues concerning the rights of people affected by oil and gas development projects in Bunyoro. Following a process allegedly orchestrated by the NGO Bureau, Kamugisha and five members of his staff spent three nights in police cells.
On October 13, police stormed AFIEGO’s offices, arresting several employees. A breast-feeding mother and another woman with asthmatic symptoms were among those arrested.
On Friday, October 22, the two women, together with four guys, were detained once more. After being charged with failure to show registration documents, they were released on Monday.
In an interview with URN, Dickens Kamugisha termed the charge as “irregular.” He claimed their detention was a premeditated ploy to quiet them, similar to how some civil society actors in the country have been silenced.
“Of course, I’ve told you before that I have no idea what the problem is. Because when the employees were first detained, they were issued a hold charge. They put one on bond because he was operating without a permission. But there is no such thing as operating without a permit in Uganda, whether under the NGO Act or the penal code,” Kamugisha explained.
According to Kamugisha, who is also a lawyer, the NGO Act states that an NGO that is found to be operating without a permit will be penalized but not have its staff jailed, as was the situation with AFIEGO.
“There is a monetary punishment, but it is not an offense.” So that’s what they indicated they were going to charge our employees with. When we arrived to Jinja Road police station, we inquired as to what infraction we had done. He stated, “They couldn’t tell us.”
He claims that when he was freed from the police station after three nights in custody, the officers instead charged him and others with failure to show documentation.
When asked why he believes his organization is being attacked for its work, Kamugisha explained that the problem stems from AFIEGO’s campaigning in the Albertine Graben, where Total and CNOOC are expanding oil and gas infrastructure.
“Many of our staff have been arrested, many are on police bond, since the beginning of the Tilenga project, the Kingfisher project, the EACOP, and now the Bugoma forest giveaway,” he said. “Many of our staff have been arrested, especially in Buliisa and Hoima, and along the EACOP in the greater Masaka area,” he said.
“As a result, the NGO Bureau suspended groups from the communities where we work.” Even those that were not affiliated with an NGO. So the question isn’t whether we’re complying or not,” he clarified.
AFIEGO has been chairing a coalition of civil society players opposing to the sugarcane farming of Bugoma forest.
The NGO Bureau declared on August 20 that it was suspending the activity of 54 civil society organizations, including AFIEGO, for operating without proper authorization. Some of the impacted civil society organizations, such as the Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies (GLISS) and AFIEGO, denied breaking the legislation.
The two claimed that the Uganda Registration Services Bureau had lawfully registered them as corporations limited under Ugandan law to work in the fields of public policy and research.
AFIEGO is not required to seek an operational permit from the NGO Bureau, according to Kamugisha. “First and foremost, we are not a non-governmental organization. We are a limited-by-guarantee business registered under the Companies Act. We have articles of incorporation and memorandums of incorporation that spell out exactly what we may and cannot do.”
Their arrest, he claims, is part of a ruse to keep him and other members of AFIEGO from speaking out about energy governance, the environment, and land rights in Bunyoro.
“I believe that by arresting us and holding us in jail when we have committed no crime, the government is just teaching every person that they are in danger, whether they have rights or not.” And I believe that many of our colleagues will flee.” He stated
According to Kamugisha, the arrest and storming of civil society players’ offices has a chilling impact on the country’s civil society. “Civil society is vanishing at an increasing rate with each passing day. Civil society, which used to stand up when there was injustice, will no longer do so.”
He stated that part of this anxiety has spread to the courts, with magistrates and justices refusing to hear cases brought by civil society.
Dickens Kamugisha claims that the NGO Bureau is now not working under the law because its board is not fully constituted, in addition to not wanting to register with it. “Representatives of CSOs are supposed to be on the board.” They have never been appointed before. They must establish an adjudication committee since it is mandated by law. That committee does not exist.”
He claims that, for the time being, the Bureau is resorting to methods such as arresting people before providing them a hearing, as required by law. The NGO ACT 2016 establishes an adjudication body to hear appeals from organisations who have been harmed by the NGO Bureau’s acts and rulings.
