Escalation: Military Arrests Prominent Human Rights Activists Eunice Musiime and Sarah Bireete in Kampala Raid

By Watchdog Uganda Correspondent

KAMPALA — In a dramatic escalation of the state’s crackdown on civic voices, heavily armed Ugandan military personnel have detained two of the country’s most prominent civil society leaders and women’s rights defenders.

Eunice Musiime, a feminist lawyer and the Executive Director of Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), and Dr. Sarah Bireete, a veteran constitutional governance advocate and Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), were taken from Musiime’s residence on Sunday, June 28, 2026.

According to eyewitness accounts, military operatives laid siege to Musiime’s home earlier in the day. Dr. Bireete, who also serves as the Chairperson of the East and Horn of Africa Elections Observers Network (E-HORN), had reportedly driven to the residence to check on Musiime’s safety after receiving frantic alerts regarding the sudden military presence. Both women were bundled into unmarked vehicles and driven away to an undisclosed destination.

No formal arrest warrants have been presented, and state authorities—including the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Uganda Police Force—have maintained a strict silence regarding the legal basis or location of their detention.

Just days prior, on June 24, state security forces carried out a similar unannounced raid on the Luzira residence of veteran politician and human rights icon Miria Matembe, during which personal electronic devices were confiscated.

Security sources indicate that Musiime’s NGO offices had already been subjected to a heavy-handed search on Thursday, with operatives allegedly seeking links to the ongoing investigation into Matembe.

The latest targeting of Dr. Bireete marks a renewal of state pressure against her. Bireete was previously arrested by security forces in late December 2025 and held through the January 2026 presidential election cycle on highly contested data-sharing charges regarding the national voters’ register—a prosecution that the Uganda Law Society (ULS) and international watchdogs like Amnesty International condemned as “fatally defective” and politically motivated before she was granted bail in late January.

Activists and civil society consortiums have taken to digital spaces to demand the immediate release of the two leaders, characterizing the military’s bypass of standard police procedure as a lawless campaign to completely neutralize the country’s remaining non-governmental checks on power.