Museveni targets colonial-era laws

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the release of all suspects arrested for ‘idle and disorderly’ behaviour under colonial-era legislation. The Daily Monitor reports that police chief Martin Okoth Ochola has instructed regional police commanders to comply with the directive. In a report in 2016, the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), said the arrests took place under ‘vagrancy laws’ introduced during British colonial rule and mostly targeted unemployed and homeless people. A study showed that 958 arrests were made between 2011 and 2015 at five police stations sampled. This is the third time that Museveni has made the order, the last one being in his State of the Nation address in 2017.