Uganda: YLF Laments Clampdown on NGOs

By Development Diaries
June 25, 2021

Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Uganda, including Youth Line Forum (YLF), have raised concern about the continued clampdown on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country.

Uganda, in 2020, suspended the operations of 208 humanitarian agencies over violations of rules governing refugees in the country, according to a Xinhua report.

In the first week of June 2021, authorities in Uganda suspended the operations of six NGOs over alleged fraud.

Executive Director of National Bureau for NGOs, Stephen Okello, alleged that some of the organisations were involved in the forgery of documents authorising them to operate, defrauded their funders and individuals engaged in electronic fraud.

‘The NGO board has noted with great concern the increasing fraudulent practices involving some NGOs and members of the general public’, Okello had said.

‘There are some unscrupulous individuals taking the advantage of the NGO sector to defraud their stakeholders’.

However, Technical Advisor of the Youth Line Forum, Ruth Asiimwe, in an interview with reporters, said there was shrinking civic space in the country orchestrated by government.

Asiimwe said that it was unfair for government to suspend activities of some of the NGOs, a move she described as a deliberate clamp down on them.

‘All entities, especially state actors that have perpetuated a clampdown on civic space by targeting civil society leaders and have limited their right of expression as provided for in the constitution must be identified and brought to book’, she said.

Asiimwe also said, ‘As civil society actors, we commit ourselves to getting acquainted with the provisions of the law and helping other actors to appreciate the existing laws that enable us to work conducive for example in aiding about 200 organisations which are not validated to successfully get validation as provided for in the NGO Act’.

Before the 14 January election, the government of Uganda deported two heads of the United States and European Union-funded NGOs in the country over allegations they support regime change.

Two other heads of foreign NGOs carrying out civic education and strengthening political parties regarding the elections were barred from returning to Uganda.

Also, two civil society organisations that work on voter education had their accounts frozen over their alleged funding of terrorism.