Anti-corruption protesters ‘playing with fire’, Ugandan president warns

Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, has warned the organisers of Tuesday’s anti-corruption march to drop their plans or they will face it rough.

A group of activists have planned to march to parliament to show discontent over corruption in the August House.

The organisers of the protests say they want members of the public to join them.

In a televised address late Saturday, President Museveni said: “Some elements, especially the opposition are working with foreigners to ferment chaos in Uganda with illegal and inconsiderate processions .  They should check themselves or we will have no alternative but to check them.”

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Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist since 1986, said it is foolhardy for some people to want to destroy what has been achieved by “wealth creators”.

He said: “This huge amount of food we eat is produced by us the wealth creators and everybody benefits. We are busy producing wealth and you here want to disturb us!  You are playing with fire. We cant allow you to disturb us.

“When you hear people talking of demonstrations, when you do it in a place like Kampala where people are selling on the roadside, are you going to step in their products? You are playing. Don’t have such ideas in your head.”

The president advised the organisers of the planned demo to make use of Kololo independence grounds and hold their protests from there and on a day like Sunday which is not busy.

Earlier Saturday, Ugandan police had informed organisers it would not permit the planned protest in the capital Kampala as authorities had intelligence that “some elements were trying to take advantage of the demonstration to cause chaos in the country”.

AFP quoted Ugandan police operations director, Frank Mwesigwa as saying: “Demonstrations can only be allowed under our mandate as long as they are not causing public disorder and disrupting lives of lawful citizens.”