Kampala, Uganda – 11 climate activists who had peacefully visited KCB Bank Uganda to submit their petition demanding the bank to withdraw its financial investment in the destructive EACOP project have been remanded to Luzira Prison until May 8, 2025
On Thursday, a group of determined environmental activists, armed with a petition, stormed the KCB Uganda headquarters with one clear demand: Stop financing the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
However, before their message could even reach the bank’s top executives, they were lured into a trap in the bank’s basement where the police swiftly arrested them.
The activists appeared before court yesterday, where they were formally charged and remanded to Luzira Maximum Security Prison.
Their remand until May 8 has ignited outrage from human rights organizations, climate groups and sections of the public who argue that peaceful protest is a constitutional right, not a crime.
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline stretching 1,443 kilometers from Uganda’s oil fields in Hoima to Tanzania’s Indian Ocean port of Tanga has been labeled by activists as “a ticking climate bomb” since it threatens 2,000+ square kilometers of protected wildlife habitats, over 100,000 people facing forced displacement and carbon emissions that could worsen the global climate crisis.
By gong to KCB bank, one of the banks allegedly financing the project, activists aim to cut off the pipeline’s financial lifeline.
The remanding of peaceful protesters at Luzira highlights growing tensions between economic development and environmental protection in Uganda. It also raises serious questions about freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
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