People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua when she arrived at JKIA on June 22, 2026, after she was denied entry into Uganda.

📋 Breaking It Down

The People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader and former Justice Minister Martha Karua has moved to a Ugandan court seeking to overturn her deportation and secure her return to represent jailed opposition leader Kizza Besigye and his co-accused in a criminal case stemming from their 2024 arrest in Nairobi.

Ms Karua, alongside the Uganda Law Society, is challenging the June 22 decision by Uganda’s Principal Immigration Officer at Entebbe International Airport to deny her entry and declare her a “persona non grata” . They argued that the decision was unlawful and made without giving her a hearing.

She wants the High Court’s Civil Division in Kampala to quash the decision and restrain immigration authorities from interfering with her entry to Uganda to discharge her professional duties as an advocate.

📌 What You Need to Know

Ms Karua narrates that she travelled to Uganda on June 22 to represent Dr Besigye and Hajji Obeid Lutale after obtaining a Special Practising Certificate authorising her to practise before Ugandan courts. She says immigration officials denied her entry, took her phones and later served her with a notice directing her to return to Kenya.

Dr Besigye and Mr Lutale were arraigned over charges of treason and two counts of misprision of treason, with the prosecution alleging that they were involved in plans to overthrow the Ugandan government.

Ugandan Opposition leader Kizza Besigye stands in a steel dock at the Uganda Military General Court Martial in Makindye, a suburb of Kampala on December 2, 2024.

The charges arose after the two were arrested in Nairobi in November 2024 and initially taken before Uganda’s General Court Martial, before being transferred to the civilian courts following a Supreme Court decision that civilians could not be tried by the military court. They were subsequently charged at Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s Court on February 21, 2025.

Ms Karua's case against the country's Attorney General over the Immigration officer's actions follows an earlier application by Dr Besigye and Mr Lutale over the same decision. The High Court declined to determine whether the immigration decision was lawful, holding that such a challenge should be filed through judicial review, and dismissed that application.

Ms Karua and the Uganda Law Society want the court to declare the immigration decision unlawful, arbitrary, unreasonable and procedurally improper.

📰 Source: Nation Africa