This article calls on the international community to pay attention to the gross injustices being perpetrated against vulnerable Ugandans who have no opportunity to communicate with the world. From hope to courage, anything now meaning resistance to oppression and human denigration is encapsulated by the name Olivia Lutaaya. We often give less attention to courageous and uncompromised grassroots freedom fighters than we should.
Do you know how the name Olivia Lutaaya is shaping the current political struggle for freedom, dignity, justice and democracy in Uganda? When the People Power Movement arrived on Uganda’s political chess board in 2020 it brought with it many characters, from seasoned politicians to musicians, jobless youth, activists and media personalities who shook Uganda’s political arena in 2020, and continue to do so. Many were compromised when offered money and positions by the ruling National Resistance Movement military government, while others who remained loyal to the cause of change faced brutality, abductions, torture, political imprisonment and enforced disappearances.
Despite the political imprisonments and oppression that took place, some People Power freedom fighters remained resolute – and one of the most outstanding of these is Olivia Lutaaya. She is a mother of three children who was abducted and unlawfully arrested in December 2020, May 2021 and November 2025, and tried in military courts. She spent four years in illegal detention after the state failed to provide any evidence against her, and instead resorted to coercing her and 32 others to plead guilty to charges of treachery.
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In November 2024, Olivia and others were released on condition they take indoctrination classes in Kwankwanzi and denounce presidential hopeful Bobi Wine. But unlike her male counterparts who accepted all the compromises in exchange for their freedom, Lutaaya rejected them and went back to the National Unity Platform, the home of the People Power Movement, and resumed her pursuit of a free, democratic and fair country for all. In less than a year Lutaaya was imprisoned again after being illegally arrested in the Mbarara district, while on the National Unity Platform’s presidential campaign trail.
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