As Ugandan opposition leaders walked past a recent rally, hundreds of people screamed with excitement and the crowd waved scores of flags – a dangerous symbol of politicization in the run-up to this week’s elections.
Analysts say it is almost a foregone conclusion that 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni will win a seventh term in Thursday’s vote, given his near-total control of the East African country’s state apparatus.
But his opponent, 43-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, saw the election as a protest vote and cleverly turned the flag into a symbol of resistance.
Police last month warned against “casual and inappropriate” use of the flag.
Wine’s supporters frequently faced intimidation from security forces during the campaign, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office and other observers.
But the flag is “the only weapon we have,” Conrad Olwenyi, a 31-year-old carpenter, told a wine rally this week.
“We cannot confront the security personnel because they have guns. We only have flags,” he said. But “if they shoot you while you’re holding the flag, they’re shooting at the country.”
-“Regaining Patriotism”-
The Ugandan flag, created when the country gained independence from Britain in 1962, has a black stripe to represent Africa, a yellow stripe to represent sunshine, a red stripe to represent African brotherhood, and is topped by a gray red-crowned crane.
Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) adopted red berets as a symbol in the 2021 elections, but the government ruled these were illegal because they were part of military uniforms and used the ruling to justify attacks on the party’s offices.
Ugandan expert Christopher Titka said the flag was a smart choice and a way to “restore patriotism”.
“It kind of surprised the government, so that’s why they started cracking down,” he told AFP.
Like many countries in East Africa, Uganda has laws regulating how the flag is used, although these laws have rarely been enforced in Uganda in the past.
“It shows panic,” prominent cartoonist Jimmy Spear Sentongo told AFP.
“I don’t think they are threatened by the misuse of the flag. They are threatened by the visibility of support for the NUP,” Sentongo said, adding that as Museveni ages and approaches 40 years in power, “the space for free speech is shrinking.”
“Everyone has the right to use the flag, but it depends on the context in which they use it. I believe the opposition is politicizing it,” said Israel Kyarisiima, national youth coordinator for Museveni’s National Resistance Movement party.
Wine’s supporters have repeatedly accused security services of targeting people carrying flags at rallies, and the leader urged followers in a Christmas address to “protect anyone who is attacked for carrying a flag”.
Police threats did not stop Wine’s supporters from waving flags at the rally.
One attendee this week, flag-waving Ruth Excellent Mirembe, 25, said: “Now we have something that really shows the unity of Ugandans, and they are trying to criminalize it.”
She told AFP that trying to prevent its use was “the highest form of oppression”. “This represents us as Ugandans.”
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