By Our Reporter
A sharp dispute has erupted between the journalists under their umbrella organization the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) and the Electoral Commission (EC), arising out of the failure by the Commission to address their safety concerns ahead of the 2026 general elections.
The safety concerns were sparked off by the targeted attacks on journalists by the members of security forces under JAT during the March 13, 2025 Kawempe parliamentary by election that marred by massive violence.
Those choreographed attacks were in form of brutal assault, intimidation, detention, confiscation and damage of the work tools, among others. They were locally and internationally widely condemned by several human rights defenders including the government’s human rights watchdog Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) and European Union (EU), prompting a media blackout on Police and UPDF activities.
This industrial action was announced by the media associations led by the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) during an emergency joint press conference in Kampala city. The question of unresolved electoral journalist safety dominated the 2025 May 3 RD World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) commemoration.
It has now emerged from the multiple sources at the Commission that when those depressing events unfolded, the EC chairperson was formally petitioned to lay out deterrent measures with concrete assurance against future occurrences of the same against journalists, which has not happened.
This according to the sources, is the born of dispute between the EC and UJA with journalists feeling that nothing much in terms of showing commitment and goodwill on the part of the Commission to address their safety concerns has been done, yet only about 45 days are left to the nomination of the 2026 election parliamentary and presidential candidates.
This website has seen a letter dated May 13, 2025 written by the UJA president Mathias Rukundo to the EC chairperson, seeking an assurance on the safety of journalists during the 2026 election.
Rukundo noted that the Kawempe by election attacks on journalists as grave atrocities were a deprivation of their right to freedom of speech and expression which includes freedom of the press and other media enshrined under Article 29(1)(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 as amended, hence creating safety concerns amongst the journalists.
“All this speaks to the growing safety concerns that necessitates the Commission’s urgent intervention as the statutory electoral process manager with safety measures and assurances to the journalists in the spirit of curbing electoral violence that threatens peace and stability of this country”, Rukundo emphasized.
The Uganda journalist’s president stated that a total of 36 journalists together with some of their organization drivers were brutally attacked and injured by officers from various security forces including the UPDF and Uganda Police Force while covering the by-election which left them physically and psychologically impaired.
“The work tools for some of those journalists and those belonging to their broadcasting houses such as mobile phones, cameras and live broadcasting units were confiscated from them, taken away by these security agencies and have never been returned which has adversely negatively impacted their work to date”, part of his letter reads.
It is on this premise that the association requested the Electoral Commission to urgently consider the following as ways of exploring a lasting solution to the concerns moving forward:
1. Urgently pronounce itself on how the protection of journalists will be ensured, considering the Kawempe by election violence to which many fell victim and succumbed grave and or permanent injuries.
2. Holding a sincere and comprehensive conversation about the safety of journalists ahead of the 2026 election.
3. Partnering with the Uganda Journalists Association to organize stakeholders dialogue with all intended players in the upcoming election including the entire security managers/agencies in the country who intend to play acritical role in the upcoming election to change their mindset regarding the role of journalists, media in any election of any society.
4. Furthermore, there is also an urgent need to hold capacity building trainings for journalists on electoral reporting as soon as possible.
Electoral Commission Defends Itself.
When contacted, the EC spokesperson Julius Mucunguzi noted that violence has no place in the electoral process, saying journalist’s safety is linked to the security and safety of everybody.
Court Criminalizes Journalists Beating.
According to the November 13, 2024, High Court decision by justice Boniface Wamala from the petition filed by the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) and its members Timothy Murungi and Henry Sekanjako in February 2021, challenging the assault of journalists by the 8 individual UPDF officers under the command of Lt. Col Napoleon Namanya and the Attorney General (AG), Court ruled that,
” Article 29(1)(a) of the Constitution of Uganda provides that every person shall have a right to freedom of speech and expression which shall include freedom of the press and other media. The 2nd and 3rd applicants led evidence showing that they were assaulted and sustained bodily injuries while they were covering news stories and taking photographs in the course of their business as journalists. This evidence was not rebutted by the respondents and has been found by the Court to be credible. I agree with the applicants that the conduct by the security personnel presented an attack on the applicant’s freedom of the press and media and constituted a violation of the applicants ‘right to practice their profession as journalists. The applicants have therefore satisfied the Court on a balance of probabilities that their right to freedom of the press and the media was violated by the security officials. Issue 1 is therefore answered in the affirmative”.
The brutal assault of journalists Murungi and Sekanjako had happened at the defunct UN Human Rights office in Kololo as they with several other journalists covered a story regarding the petition about the missing NUP supporters.
