Martha Karua

East Africa must not slide into total authoritarianism

In conversation with Ms. Inge Herbert, Regional Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Sub-Saharan Africa, Kenyan Senior Counsel and opposition leader Hon. Martha Karua warns that the criminalisation of dissent in East Africa is no longer confined to individual countries, but is becoming a regional institutional crisis.

When Kenyan Senior Counsel Martha Karua was denied entry into Uganda and declared persona non grata, the incident raised more than diplomatic concern. For Karua, it exposed a deeper problem: the weakening of political institutions, the erosion of due process, and the growing use of criminal law to contain opposition politics in East Africa.

Karua had travelled to Uganda to observe proceedings involving Erias Lukwago, the former Lord Mayor of Kampala, President of the People’s Front for Freedom, and a senior lawyer in the defence of Ugandan opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye. Lukwago had been arrested and charged with misprision of treason, a charge linked to allegations that he failed to disclose information related to a treason case.

For Karua, the charge strikes at the heart of the legal profession itself.

“They ignore completely advocate-client confidentiality,” she told Ms. Herbert.

That point matters beyond one courtroom. In any constitutional democracy, lawyers must be able to represent unpopular clients without becoming targets themselves. If the state can turn defence work into evidence of disloyalty, then the right to counsel becomes fragile, and political trials become easier to stage.

Karua said her exclusion from Uganda should therefore not be seen as an isolated administrative decision. She believes it forms part of a wider attempt to weaken the defence in the case against Dr Besigye and Obeid Lutale.

“They do not want a fair trial for Besigye because we insist on all procedures being followed,” Karua said. “They see us as a delaying force in the case.”

Her words reveal a fundamental institutional tension: courts are meant to slow power down. Procedure, evidence, defence rights and judicial scrutiny are not technical inconveniences. They are the safeguards that separate justice from punishment by political command.

According to Karua, however, the Ugandan authorities appear to view those safeguards as obstacles.

“They would like a shortcut where they convict Besigye on trumped-up charges and where his neck will be on the line because the penalty for treason is death,” she said.

The seriousness of the charge is central to her concern. Treason is among the gravest offences in any legal system. When used against opposition figures, it carries consequences far beyond the accused person. It sends a message to parties, activists, lawyers, voters and civil society: political contestation can be reframed as a threat to the state.

Karua said this is why Lukwago’s arrest and her own deportation must be understood politically.

“We are standing in their way and they are in a hurry,” she said. “That is why Lukwago has been charged, which we consider political persecution. And I have been barred. I have been declared persona non grata in Uganda.”

Karua holds a valid special practice certificate allowing her to appear in the Besigye case. Yet her removal from Uganda means she cannot participate directly in the proceedings. That, she argues, is precisely the point.

Asked what she will do now, Karua said she will use the moment to intensify advocacy from outside Uganda.

“I am barred from entering Uganda, so obviously I cannot be in the case,” she said. “I am going to use this time to step up my advocacy, together with others, advocating for the world to recognise and acknowledge Besigye, Lukwago, Obeid Lutale and the others as prisoners of conscience.”

Karua also connected the Ugandan situation to Tanzania, where opposition leader Tundu Lissu, Chairperson of CHADEMA, has faced treason charges. She sees the cases of Besigye and Lissu as part of a wider East African pattern: the transformation of political dissent into criminal liability.

“This also enables me to step up advocacy on Tundu Lissu’s case,” she said. “Tundu Lissu, the Tanzanian opposition figure, similar to Besigye, is charged with treason.”

For political institutions, this is the central warning. Opposition parties are not merely electoral competitors. They are part of the architecture of democracy. They test governments, represent alternative constituencies, expose abuse and offer voters a peaceful route for change. When opposition leaders are imprisoned, excluded, charged with capital offences or prevented from campaigning, elections may still take place, but democratic choice is hollowed out.

Karua did not soften her assessment.

“What is happening in the East African region? Our rogue states — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania — are criminalising political dissent,” she said.

She warned that Kenya should not treat these developments as foreign problems. With Kenya heading towards a general election next year, she believes the repression of opposition politics in neighbouring countries should be read as a warning sign.

“The opposition has been criminalised in two countries,” Karua said. “Two opposition figures charged with treason, unable to participate in the recent general elections in those countries. In Kenya, we are heading to a general election next year.”

Karua also accused Kenyan authorities of involvement in the alleged abduction and illegal transfer of Dr Besigye and Obeid Lutale from Kenya to Uganda. In her view, the two should have been taken through a lawful extradition process rather than being forcibly transferred across the border.

“Kenya participated together with the Ugandan authorities in the abduction of Besigye and Obeid Lutale from Kenya,” she said. “Instead of taking them through the legal process for extradition, they were renditioned illegally to Uganda.”

This allegation goes to the heart of regional governance. The East African Community is built on ideas of cooperation, movement, legal order and shared democratic values. But if cross-border cooperation is used to transfer dissidents outside lawful procedures, then regional integration becomes a tool of repression rather than freedom.

Karua’s warning is therefore not only about Uganda, or Tanzania, or Kenya. It is about whether East Africa’s institutions can still protect citizens when political power becomes impatient with legal limits.

“What I foresee is similar happenings or worse in Kenya,” she said. “So when we fight for Uganda and Tanzania, we are fighting for our rights as well.”

Her message is sharp, but also deeply human. Behind every political case are people: lawyers taken from their work, families waiting outside courtrooms, opposition supporters watching their leaders disappear from the ballot, and citizens wondering whether the law protects them or merely serves those in power.

Karua ended the interview with a warning that should concern democrats across the region.

“East Africa must not slide to total authoritarianism,” she said.

The cases of Dr Kizza Besigye, Erias Lukwago, Obeid Lutale and Tundu Lissu are therefore not simply legal disputes. They are tests of whether courts, lawyers, opposition parties and regional institutions can still hold the line when governments treat dissent as treason. For Karua, defending them is not only an act of solidarity. It is a defence of the political space on which every East African citizen may one day depend.