Uganda accuses MPs and supporters of the opposition over the demonstration

In a protest over Nairobi’s decision to jail and deport a number of their colleagues, 14 opposition officials and sympathizers from Uganda were arrested by police on Monday while they marched through the country’s capital towards the Kenyan embassy, according to local media.

Though the streets of Uganda’s capital were largely peaceful on Monday, the arrests and deportations from last month coincide with anti-government rallies by youth and opposition groups that have shaken both Kenya and neighboring Uganda.

36 members of Uganda’s opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), who had traveled to Kenya for a training session, were taken into custody by Kenyan officials on July 23, according to the group’s attorneys.

They were sent back to Uganda and last week faced allegations relating to terrorism, which they refuted, according to their legal representatives.

According to the Daily Monitor and other media, two parliamentarians and fourteen other opposition party members marched through Kampala on Monday to express their disapproval of how their colleagues were treated.

They were accused in a magistrate’s court with being “a public nuisance,” per a charge sheet obtained by Reuters, after being detained “for participating in unlawful assembly activities,” police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said.

They all entered not-guilty pleas. An FDC official who was in court but wished to remain anonymous because he was not permitted to speak on behalf of the party stated that four of the accused were freed on bond, while the other accused were remanded to prison and would appear in court again on August 7.

Human rights advocates and opponents of President Yoweri Museveni have long charged that his administration is repressing his opponents by fabricating accusations. Officials from the government dispute this.

The 46 million-person nation of East Africa has been ruled by Museveni, 79, since 1986.