By the Witness Radio team
In Kampala, police detained 16 young environmental activists from the Rooted in Resistance Movement as they attempted to deliver petitions to Parliament and TotalEnergies, challenging Uganda’s ongoing push for oil production and infrastructure.
The arrests unfolded on Monday morning, August 31, 2026, as the activists split into two determined groups: ten were apprehended near Parliament, while six others were arrested near the TotalEnergies offices in Kampala.
Six activists now sit in Wandegeya Police Station, while the remaining ten are held at Central Police Station (CPS) Kampala, according to group leader Maktum Kajubi.
With these latest arrests, nearly 20 Rooted in Resistance activists have been detained in under a month, the group reports.
On August 10, authorities arrested four other members of the group and charged them with being a public nuisance.
The young protesters carried bright orange banners and placards, their messages ringing out: “No to Oil,” “Oil is temporary, nature is permanent,” and “Uganda deserves an oil-free future.”
Those arrested include Mukiibi Isaac, Mawanda Arafat, Mugerwa Nicholas, Opio Innocent, Friday John and Onyango Ronald, among others.
Rooted in Resistance, once called Students Against EACOP, is a Ugandan youth-led movement fiercely opposing fossil fuel projects like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline—their vision: a sustainable, oil-free, people-first economy.
These latest arrests come as activists ramp up their campaign, challenging Uganda’s deepening reliance on petroleum extraction.
In a press statement seen by Witness Radio, the group called on Parliament to reconsider what it described as Uganda’s petroleum-dependent development model.
“Rooted in Resistance calls upon Parliament to exercise its constitutional responsibility to protect the national interest and reconsider Uganda’s petroleum-dependent development model,” the statement reads.
The activists emphasized that their petition rests on citizens’ constitutional rights to participate in governance, express themselves, and assemble peacefully, as outlined in Article 38.
They urge Parliament to freeze any further oil infrastructure expansion and transparently review Uganda’s petroleum policies and agreements.
The group also calls for national investment to be channeled into agriculture, manufacturing, renewable energy, tourism, technology, education, innovation, and homegrown enterprises.
Activists insist Uganda’s economic future should break free from petroleum, pointing to other sectors that promise broader and longer-lasting opportunities for all citizens.
They urge TotalEnergies to rethink its role in oil projects and instead invest its resources and expertise in sectors that could deliver lasting benefits for Ugandans.
“We urge TotalEnergies to redirect meaningful investment and expertise towards renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, agro-processing, local manufacturing, tourism conservation, technology, skills development and youth enterprise which support livelihoods,” the group said.
The activists are pressing Parliament to put long-term national interests and intergenerational justice at the heart of Uganda’s economic planning.
“The future of Uganda must not be determined by what lies beneath our soil when the country’s greatest resource is the people who live upon it,” the statement says.
EACOP is a 1,443-kilometer heated crude oil pipeline being developed to transport crude oil from Uganda’s oil fields in the Albertine region to the port of Tanga on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast.
The pipeline will transport crude produced from Uganda’s upstream oil projects, including TotalEnergies’ Tilenga project in the Lake Albert region.
To the activists, the pipeline is far more than just infrastructure. They warn that ongoing oil investment could trap Uganda in fossil fuel dependency and expose communities and ecosystems to grave environmental and social dangers.
Now, the movement is urging both Parliament and TotalEnergies to rethink Uganda’s current path.
“Rooted in Resistance therefore calls upon Parliament and TotalEnergies to listen, engage and reconsider the current direction of petroleum expansion. Our demand is clear: an oil-free economy, economic freedom, environmental protection and development that leaves Uganda stronger, not more dependent, for generations to come,” the movement adds in their petition.
