Author, Benjamin Rukwengye. PHOTO/FILE.
Back in the day, the Uganda Police had come to an interesting compromise with some opposition politicians and civil society actors who wanted to protest against government inefficiencies. It guaranteed a win-win situation for both sides and even more importantly, duped the public.
If you wanted to hold a protest, you would inform the Inspector General of Police, who – or his officers – would call a press conference to advise you against that course of action. Conversely, you would also address a presser, bellicosely telling him off and assuring him that you wouldn’t be deterred because picketing was within your rights as a citizen.
On the morning of the protest day, police trucks would camp outside your home while the media would be in your living room, covering your every move. At the agreed time, you would get out of your residence, only to be roughed by the police right outside your gate or somewhere along the route – if they had let you escape through a back route.
You would then be whisked off to Nagalama, or Kira Police station, detained for the day and driven back home at night. The public would be happy that you stood on business, the Police would have avoided any skirmishes in the city, and donors would continue to use your story to advance their agenda. Everybody won but Uganda lost.
The pact held until Gen. Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police, was sent packing thanks to the NRA's internal contradictions coincided with the emergence of the People Power/National Unity Platform. There were new players in town. The back channels to the old politicians and civil society actors were closed.
The government and its attitude to dissent, however, hadn’t changed. In nearly every situation involving a protest – whether it is by one person, three, or thirty – we know how the government reacts. High-handed and brutal arrests, detention for a few hours or days, arraignment in court for processing, denial of bail, and remand for a couple of weeks. Like clockwork.
November 2020 killings exemplified that more than anything ever could. But when you push people to the wall, they will try and find ways to fight back. And if you can’t take on a bully, you get creative in ways that disarm them.
That explains the events of this week, where a group of three young women were arrested for holding a nude protest against corruption in Parliament. They are a continuation of last month’s #MarchtoParliament, where over 100 youth took to the streets demanding that the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, must resign – over accusations of corruption. It is not the first time that people are forced to use their bodies to express their anger and disagreement.
A couple of years ago, when Dr. Stella Nyanzi was engaged in a massive fight with Prof. Mahmood Mamdani and Makerere University, she realized she had run out of options and wasn’t getting heard. It is the sort of thing that happens in David Vs Goliath situations. Her last resort was to stage a nude protest that at the time, scandalized many. Many young people and social media users had never interacted with this kind of protest. A few years later, as she battled through court, she did the same – when she disagreed with the ruling.
It was her way of letting the system know she would stop at nothing to get herself heard. Dr. Nyanzi’s was not the first and would not be the last time we were experiencing nude protest. A group of Acholi women who were done talking to a belligerent government that was bent on taking their land in Apaa showed up naked, to meet with government ministers. That was all the weapon they had.
When this round of anti-corruption protests began, this column predicted that a line had been crossed and we were in new territory. It was the first time we saw protestors like these – young, hip and savvy, leaderless, and somewhat uncoordinated.
The only thing that bound them together was the anger toward a government that holds them in disdain and is deaf. They don’t have the hardware to take on a government that knows only one way out of this. Yet, in just over a month, they have shown that they can get creative and will not let the other side decide for them how they should engage in the fight.
Benjamin Rukwengye is the founder of Boundless Minds.
