US Senator demands release of Sarah Bireete 

As Uganda gears up for its tightly contested 15 January 2026 general election, pressure from international actors has intensified over what critics describe as an escalating crackdown on dissenting voices. 

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), the Ranking Member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, last night issued a statement condemning the ongoing repression of opposition figures, civil society leaders and activists in Uganda. 

She demanded that Ugandan authorities must  “refrain from violence and suppression especially around the elections.

She further warned that “the arrests of citizens, opposition figures and civil society leaders cannot go unaddressed.” 

Senator Shaheen particularly called for the immediate release of human rights lawyer Sarah Bireete, writing, “I call on the Ugandan authorities to release Sarah Bireete immediately.”

Bireete’s arrest has become emblematic of broader concerns over shrinking civic space in Uganda. 

The Executive Director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG) and head of regional election-observer coalitions was detained on 30 December 2025 after security forces surrounded her home in Kampala, according to multiple reports. 

She was subsequently charged with unlawfully obtaining or disclosing personal data under Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act, alleged to involve National Voters’ Register information. During her appearance at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Court, she denied the charges and was remanded to Luzira Prison while a bail hearing is set for later in January. 

The circumstances of the arrest have drawn widespread condemnation from local and international observers. 

Civil society organisations argue that the charge is politically motivated and part of a broader pattern of intimidation aimed at stifling critics ahead of the polls. 

Amnesty International has documented reports of security forces using tear gas against peaceful crowds, pepper-spraying and beating individuals, and launching what its Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, called a “brutal campaign of repression” that inhibits fundamental freedoms ahead of the elections.