Police in Uganda arrested 104 individuals during this week’s anti-corruption protests, with nearly all facing public order charges, according to a police statement released late on Friday.
The government’s reaction to the street protests has been criticized by rights advocates and the United States, which expressed “concern” over the arrests of numerous protesters who were “peacefully demonstrating.”
In a statement on its X account on Friday, the US embassy in Uganda urged President Yoweri Museveni’s government to investigate allegations of assault on the detained protesters.
The protests, which took place on Tuesday and Thursday, saw young Ugandans taking to the streets to denounce alleged corruption by elected officials.
These demonstrations were inspired by recent youth-led protests in neighboring Kenya, which led the president there to abandon proposed tax hikes.
In response, Museveni’s government deployed police and soldiers throughout Kampala, arresting dozens of protesters carrying banners and chanting slogans.
According to a police statement, 100 of the arrested protesters have been charged. This was the first official disclosure of the number of detainees.
Rights group Amnesty International criticised the government’s “heavy-handed tactics” against the protesters earlier this week.
“Ugandan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those who were arrested solely for exercising their right to peaceful assembly,” it said in a statement on Thursday.