[Uganda] Human rights group wants charges against EACOP critics dropped
Eleven environmental activists arrested for delivering a letter opposing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) return to court on Tuesday, 17 months into a trial in which no prosecution witness has testified.
Climate Rights International (CRI), a US-based human rights group, on Monday called on Ugandan authorities to immediately drop the criminal trespass charges against the group, known as the KCB11.
“The fact that 11 people were arrested and held for 85 days in a horrible prison for delivering a letter is a travesty,” said Brad Adams, the group’s executive director.
“The government has compounded this by holding a ridiculous prosecution over their heads for the past 17 months. This is punishment by process, and the charges should be dropped immediately.”
The activists were arrested on April 23, 2025, at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Uganda’s Kampala headquarters, where they had gone to deliver a letter asking the lender to stop financing the pipeline.
The human rights group said a KCB official led them into the building’s basement on the pretext of arranging a meeting. Police and security personnel were waiting.
They were charged with criminal trespass two days later and held at Luzira prison for 85 days before being released on bail in July last year.
On September 8, the court adjourned the case to September 29, giving prosecutors a final chance to present witnesses and signalling it could dismiss the matter if they failed to proceed.
KCB Group was among five financial institutions identified as providing an initial tranche of funding for EACOP.
CRI said it wrote to the lender on September 14 seeking details on the role of its staff in the arrests. KCB had not responded by the time of publication.
The 1,443-kilometre heated pipeline will carry crude from the Tilenga and Kingfisher oilfields in western Uganda to Tanzania’s Tanga port.
EACOP Ltd said in August that construction was 91 percent complete.
More than 100,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania will permanently lose land to the pipeline and the Tilenga development.
Affected families have reported poor compensation, food insecurity, lost income and difficulty paying school fees.
The project is estimated to generate 379 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions over 25 years.
At the CNOOC-operated Kingfisher field, CRI has documented forced evictions, military violence, destruction of fishing boats, sexual and gender-based violence and labour abuses.
Research at the TotalEnergies-operated Tilenga field found that delayed payments and loss of productive land had left many families poorer.
A May 2026 review by the American Bar Association of more than 25 criminal cases against critics of EACOP and other oil projects found a pattern of mass arrests, vague charges and prolonged pretrial detention.
Many of the cases were repeatedly adjourned before being dismissed for want of prosecution.
CRI also questioned the independence of Uganda’s courts following remarks attributed to Chief Justice Flavian Zeija on August 7.
Mr Zeija reportedly said it would be “equivalent to treason” for a judicial officer to issue an injunction halting an oil project, and urged judges to support oil development.
“The Chief Justice should be defending the independence of judges, not warning them against decisions that could affect favored oil projects,” Mr Adams said.
“His remarks could reasonably make environmental defenders fear that courts will treat opposition to oil development as disloyal or criminal before their cases are even heard.”
Pressure on civil society has grown since President Yoweri Museveni signed the Protection of Sovereignty Act on May 17, a law critics say uses vague language to criminalise promoting foreign interests.
CRI wants KCB Bank Uganda to publicly back the dropping of charges and KCB Group to commit to receiving peaceful petitions without retaliation.
It has also called on TotalEnergies, CNOOC, EACOP Ltd and the state oil firms of Uganda and Tanzania to oppose reprisals against the project’s critics.
“The KCB11 and other environmental defenders are doing what responsible citizens should do: raise concerns about decisions that will shape their communities and country for decades,” Mr Adams said.
“Uganda should listen to them, not imprison them or keep them trapped in an endless court case.”
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