Uganda’s politics of poverty has returned to the spotlight, this time with piglets, arrests and a new name. A group of young activists that once styled itself around deprivation has resurfaced after staging a protest outside the Bank of Uganda.
The latest action came as the central bank faces scrutiny over the closure of commercial banks. The protesters released piglets at the bank premises and fled, continuing a pattern of theatrical demonstrations that has followed the group for years.
The movement has shifted labels over time. It has been identified as the Uganda Poor Youth Movement and also as the Uganda Youth Power Movement, a confusion that has only deepened after police described it as an illegal organisation.
That police position has already had consequences. The group’s secretary general, Ben Sebuguze, and several others have been held in detention for some time.
The group’s earlier political turns are part of the same story. In 2015, its members publicly backed former prime minister Amama Mbabazi to challenge President Yoweri Museveni, and they became known for kneeling before him and his wife in a show of support.
They later abandoned Mbabazi, drifted back to the mainstream NRM, and then shifted again, leaving poverty as their only consistent slogan. At one point they even demonstrated at the US embassy, calling on then president Barack Obama and Mbabazi to rescue them from poverty.
That protest ended badly. Ugandan police beat the demonstrators, and one video showed a youth being dragged by his feet while his head struck the tarmac.
The group had appeared to go quiet after the February 2016 elections, but the piglet protest shows it has not disappeared. In Kamwokya, Kampala, government figures later tried to hand cash to poor youth linked to Bobi Wine’s stronghold, but the money was rejected. The youths said they wanted power, not handouts, so they could be the ones giving out money.
For now, the movement’s message remains unchanged: poverty is still being used as a political badge, but the real prize appears to be influence.
