Uganda’s opposition has turned the national flag into a protest symbol ahead of the presidential election, drawing warnings from police.
KAMPALA: Uganda’s national flag has become a dangerously politicised symbol ahead of this week’s presidential election.
Hundreds screamed with excitement as opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi passed by a rally where the crowd waved a sea of national flags.
Analysts say it is almost a foregone conclusion that President Yoweri Museveni will win a seventh term given his near-total control over the state apparatus.
His opponent, better known as Bobi Wine, has framed the election as a protest vote and turned the flag into a symbol of resistance.
Police last month warned against using the flag “casually and inappropriately”.
Wine’s supporters have faced frequent intimidation by security forces during the campaign, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.
But the flag is “the only weapon we have,” said woodworker Conrad Olwenyi at the rally just outside Kampala.
“We cannot fight the security, because they have a gun. We only have the flag,” he said.
Winnie Byanyima, wife of imprisoned opposition leader Kiiza Besigye, said Wine and his supporters were using the flag as a symbol for national unity.
“And guess what? The reaction of President Museveni has been to say, you may not use the flag,” she told AFP.
Uganda’s flag was created when the country achieved independence from Britain in 1962.
In the 2021 elections, Wine’s National Unity Platform adopted red berets as a symbol, but the government ruled that was illegal.
The flag is a clever alternative and a way of “reclaiming patriotism,” said Uganda expert Kristof Titeca.
“It’s kind of taken the government by surprise, and so that’s why they started this clampdown,” he told AFP.
Like many countries in east Africa, there are laws governing how the national flag may be used.
“It shows the panic,” prominent cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo told AFP.
“Everyone has a right to use the national flag, but it depends on in what context they’re using it for,” said Israel Kyarisiima, a youth co-ordinator for Museveni’s party.
Security services have repeatedly been accused by Wine’s supporters of targeting those carrying the flag at rallies.
Wine urged followers in his Christmas address to “come to the defence of anyone assaulted for carrying the flag”.
And the threats from police have not stopped Wine’s supporters waving the flag at rallies.
“Now we’ve got something that can really show our unity as Ugandans, and they are trying to make it criminal,” said Ruth Excellent Mirembe at this week’s rally.