On February 17, 2025, a section of opposition members in a joint press briefing comprising mainly the National Unity Platform (NUP), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Katonga faction, Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), and Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) gave the government a 48-hour ultimatum to release political prisoner Kiiza Besigye.
During this gathering, the NUP women’s league members announced plans to march to parliament on February 24, 2025, to petition the speaker of parliament about human rights abuse in the country.
Flavia Kalule, the NUP women’s league chairperson, told the media that the party had already notified the Inspector General of Police in a letter and the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, about their planned demonstration.
“We have already served the IGP and the speaker, and we are asking for security to march to parliament, and we intend to march from the NUP offices at 10:00 am, and we are expecting all women to join as we petition parliament on the missing 18 NUP supporters and the continued incarceration of political prisoners even after the supreme court ordered for their release,” Kalule said.
According to her, the march to parliament is to petition the speaker on different matters, mostly on the abuse of human rights, an exercise that demands police compliance.
“We recently saw patriotic League of Uganda supporters be escorted by police and had a peaceful protest. We are also going to march peacefully to parliament, and we expect the same treatment from the police, so women come in big numbers, and we go and demand the release of our children, husbands, and friends,” Kalule said.
Lina Zedriga, the NUP vice president for Northern Uganda said that the peaceful protest was also to demand for the release of Dr Kizza Besigye and other political prisoners.
“On Monday when we go to parliament, we are demanding that the supreme court decision be respected and all proceedings in the illegal court martial be halted, and we demand the unconditionally release of all prisoners held illegally after the supreme court ruling,” Zedriga said.
On January 31, 2025, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling where it stopped the trial of civilians in the military court martial and asked that all pending court cases be transferred to the civilian courts.
However, Dr Kizza Besigye and others who were being charged in the court martial are yet to be brought to the civilian courts, as the attorney general’s office is yet to transfer their files from the court martial to the civilian courts.
