Civil societies activists in Uganda have expressed frustration over the lengthy registration processes they are subjected to for their organizations noting that they hinder their performance.
The activists pointed out that civil society operations have been a shrinking space in Uganda leading to even some civil organizations abandoning their partnership within the country.
Aciro Hilda, the Programs Executive for the Defenders Protection Initiative mentioned that there are several laws that the societies have to comply with, even some requiring payment which gets burdensome.
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She says; “Much as of we have to comply with URSB, there are over 10 other laws to comply with. It means that you have to just employ someone to handle registration and being in the know of the laws. The laws are even not clear enough, so you do something and you are tossed back, before you know it your contract time in society is up and you have not done much.”
Early this week while holding a meeting on how to enhance activities of civil society organizations, Margaret Ssekaggya, the executive director of the Human Rights Center mentioned that their role in society has highly been misunderstood which has led to harassment of their freedom.
For instance, increasingly through media reports there have been police break ins into Civil Society Organization Offices, confiscating of documents and computers and at worst of it all closing them up without clear legal reasons.
Ssekagya also says that the CSOs have been labelled as having foreign interests, partners with the opposition parties to government and promoters of ‘sexual perversion’ practices among others. However, Ssekaggya dispelled all these saying that Civil Society Organizations are largely here to only defend human rights which Uganda has in their regulatory frame work.
“Government needs to appreciate the role of the Civil Society Organizations; it cannot work alone. So let us respect each other and work for the better of the society. We work with everyone in the country, every citizen. There is nothing political about us,” SSekaggya says.
Meanwhile, Aciro reveals that not all hope has been lost, instead of focusing on the shrinking space, her organization has gone ahead with initiatives like Talk to Your Regulator in order to bridge that gap between the regulators and organizations.
The most recent has been the termination of Democratic Governance Facility -DGF; a financer to many NGOs in the country, on allegations of sponsoring opposition political activities. At the time of its exit, the multi-donor fund was in its second phase which had started in 2017, with a portfolio of up to EUROS 102 million, approximately UGX 500 billion, and according to President Museveni, this was being used inappropriately.
Over 100 civil society organizations were crashed, with numerous activities closed due to lack of funding.