People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua has joined Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye’s legal team in a show of Pan-African solidarity, just days after she was deported from Tanzania.
Karua arrived in Kampala on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, to support Besigye, who is facing charges before Uganda’s military court.
He was arrested in April alongside his aide Obeid Lutale during a protest against the rising cost of living and what they called state-sponsored corruption.
The two were later arraigned before the General Court Martial, prompting outrage from human rights groups.
“It is important that we stand with one another as Africans when democracy and human rights are under threat,” Karua told reporters outside the Kampala High Court.
Karua, a seasoned lawyer and former Justice Minister, is expected to play both a legal and symbolic role in Besigye’s defense, which his team says is part of a broader struggle against the militarisation of justice and suppression of political dissent under President Yoweri Museveni’s administration.
Tanzania deportation
Her involvement comes just days after she was denied entry into Tanzania and deported back to Nairobi on Sunday, May 18, 2025.
Karua had travelled to Dar es Salaam to attend a court session involving Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu but was held at Julius Nyerere International Airport before being sent back on a Kenya Airways flight.
“It is ironic that I was blocked from attending a legal hearing in Tanzania but welcomed to stand in solidarity here in Uganda,” Karua remarked in Kampala.
She had also travelled to Uganda earlier this year in a show of support for the country’s democratic movement, reinforcing her continued engagement in regional struggles for justice.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International and the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), condemned her deportation and called on the East African Community to safeguard the rights of citizens and legal professionals across borders.
Karua said the recent incidents point to a worrying pattern of authoritarianism and underscored the need for legal solidarity across the continent.
“Democracy is being tested across Africa. Now more than ever, we must uphold the rule of law-together,” she said.
