Political tensions in Uganda

On Friday Ugandan media reported that a member of presidential challenger Amama Mbabazi's team had been injured during two days of battles between police and supporters. Reuters news agency quoted Mbabazis's spokesperson as saying that police fired teargas and live bullets to disperse a large crowd in the town of Jinja. A police spokeswoman denied that live ammunition had been used.

Newspaper The Daily Monitor wrote that supporters had been protesting against "police blocking of Mbabazi's consultative meetings." Mbabazi was in Jinja and previously in Soroti - where clashes also took place – as part of a countrywide tour to meet supporters ahead of his bid to be nominated to run for president.

Obstacles for Museveni opponents

Mbabazi insists it is his constitutional right to hold such consultations. "They are only complicating my process," he said. "You don't have to belong to any party to consult. Even independents can consult. The only way you can educate ignorant people is by showing them the right thing. The law permits me to consult," The Daily Nation quoted him as saying.

Mbabazi served as prime minister from May 2011 until September 2014 when he was sacked by President Yoweri Museveni. He was also removed from the post of national party chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). He had been a government minister for more than 20 years. In June this year he announced his intention to run against Museveni for the NRM's nomination for president at the party's convention in early October. Mbabazi heads the Go Forward movement which brings together citizens "who want to see a Uganda that works for all her people." According to its website, the movement aims "to encourage an informed dialogue with the electorate on issues that truly matter."

In July Mbabazi was briefly arrested while on his way to Mbale in eastern Uganda to hold consultation meetings. Prominent opposition figure Kizza Besigye was also arrested at his house on the outskirts of Kampala. The latest clashes between Mbabazi supporters and police reflect growing tensions ahead of the presidential election to be held in 2016.

Incumbent president Yoweri Museveni has ruled the East African state for almost 30 years and is widely expected to be elected to another five-year term. Last year, Uganda's largest opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change, threatened to block the election if the government rejects its call for an independent electoral commission.

Concern over militia groups

In the run-up to the elections, a number of political groups have reportedly begun training militia groups. In 2006, Kakooza Mutale, a special presidential advisor on political affairs and retired major in the Uganda People's Defense Forces, led a group of violent youths to beat up people opposed to President Museveni's rule. Since then elections in Uganda have been associated with violence. Now Mutale appears to be back in action and is said to be training a group of 500 youths in the jungle – allegedly to disrupt campaign rallies by the opposition. The ruling National Resistance Movement has denied any involvement or knowledge of such activities.

However, after pictures of Mutale's training camp were leaked, opposition politicians said they felt their lives were in danger. Kampala's lord mayor Erias Lukwago, an opposition politician, took the matter to another level and recruited his own group.

"The team is part of our security system because now our lives are in danger," Lukwago told DW's correspondent in Kampala.

Uganda's Inter-Religious Council that brings together the country's religious leaders has asked politicians to break up these groups. Islamic leader Mufti Sheik Shaban Mubajje made a statement saying the Council "appeals to the ringleaders to immediately disband these groups as they risk putting national security at stake. In the meantime we request the national police to investigate these groups with a view to holding the ringleaders personally responsible for their actions."

Alex Gitta in Kampala contributed to this article