On December 30, 2025, two weeks before Uganda’s January 15, 2026 elections, security forces raided the home of Sarah Bireete, a prominent human rights activist and government critic, and arrested her.
Three days later, longer than the legally allowed 48 hours, Bireete was brought before the chief magistrates’ court in Kampala and charged with “unlawfully obtaining or disclosing personal data.” The authorities claimed she had unlawfully obtained or disclosed “national voters information” without the consent of the Electoral Commission but provided no further details.
Bireete’s lawyers told Human Rights Watch that during that time, police interrogated her about her social media posts critical of the government and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who is running for a seventh five-year term in the elections. Her bail hearing was set for January 21, meaning she will remain in detention at least until after the elections, even though Ugandan law requires bail to be determined “expeditiously.”
Bireete is the director of the Center for Constitutional Governance, a human rights organization in Kampala, and is a frequent commentator and government critic in local media and on the internet. She has also raised concerns about the legitimacy of the forthcoming elections in numerous online posts, including concerns about discrepancies in the voters’ registry.
It is not the first time Ugandan authorities have arbitrarily arrested high profile government critics to silence them and others in the lead up to elections. For example, on December 22, 2020, in the lead up to the 2021 elections, police arbitrarily arrested human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo, and three other lawyers at a restaurant in Kampala. The authorities charged Opiyo with money laundering, but later withdrew the charges.
Sarah Bireete’s arrest is a demonstration of the Uganda government’s continuing intolerance of dissent. The Ugandan authorities should release Bireete, drop all charges against her, and respect the rights to freedom of expression and political participation.
