Uganda fast-tracks bill restricting foreign funding and jailing promotion of foreign interests
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 1
Uganda fast-tracks bill restricting foreign funding and jailing promotion of foreign interests
7 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 1
Parliament aims to finish debate before President Yoweri Museveni’s 12 May swearing-in, despite amendments removing diaspora Ugandans from an earlier definition of foreigners.
The bill proposes up to 20 years in prison, caps foreign assistance above 400 million shillings a year, and allows inspections of premises and documents.
Opposition figures, lawyers, Human Rights Watch and the World Bank warn it could criminalise routine development work, hit health and education programmes, deter investment and deepen pre-election political repression.
Will Uganda's new bill protect its people's power, or will it silence the very voices it claims to represent?
With US aid declining, is Uganda's sovereignty bill a strategic pivot or a self-inflicted economic wound?