Parliamentary police have arrested four students affiliated with youth activist group Rooted in Resistance as they marched towards Parliament to petition lawmakers over Uganda’s oil policy and demand a new economic model for managing the country’s petroleum resources.
The students were reportedly intercepted by police before they could reach Parliament and taken to Central Police Station in Kampala, in the latest confrontation between security authorities and activists opposed to aspects of Uganda’s oil development strategy.
The arrests come at a politically significant moment for Uganda’s petroleum industry, with the government pushing to complete the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and begin commercial oil production.
According to the update, EACOP is now 91 percent complete, with Uganda expecting first oil before the end of 2026.
The development puts the activists’ protest in direct contrast with the government’s increasingly confident message that Uganda’s long-awaited oil project is approaching its production phase.
Activists demand different approach to oil wealth
Rooted in Resistance has emerged as one of the most vocal youth-led groups challenging Uganda’s oil development plans.
The group, which was formerly known as Students Against EACOP Uganda, has repeatedly organised demonstrations and petition drives against the pipeline and the wider oil project. Previous protests have resulted in arrests, court cases and lengthy periods of detention for some of its members.
The latest march, however, appears to have broadened the activists’ argument beyond simply opposing EACOP.
The students were reportedly marching to Parliament to petition for a new economic model for Uganda’s oil resources, raising questions about how petroleum revenues should be managed and distributed once production begins.
Their intervention comes as Uganda prepares to enter an entirely new economic phase.
For years, the government has presented petroleum as a potential source of substantial public revenue, foreign exchange and industrial development. The authorities have argued that oil revenues can finance infrastructure, support economic transformation and reduce Uganda’s dependence on traditional sources of government revenue.
But activists and environmental campaigners have continued to question whether the expected benefits will reach ordinary Ugandans and whether the environmental and social costs associated with petroleum development are justified.
A growing history of arrests
The arrest of the four students is not an isolated incident.
In April, police arrested six members of Rooted in Resistance after they went to the Kampala offices of TotalEnergies to deliver a petition opposing EACOP. Police said at the time that the activists had been mobilising for activities that could incite violence and disrupt public order.
The group has also faced significant legal battles over previous demonstrations.
In April 2026, Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court convicted eight activists linked to Rooted in Resistance over a protest connected to the anti-EACOP campaign. The court subsequently sentenced the eight to 11 months in prison for common nuisance arising from the demonstrations.
The group’s confrontation with security agencies has also produced judicial scrutiny.
In May, the High Court awarded damages to activists who had been detained beyond the constitutional 48-hour limit following an anti-EACOP protest. The court found that their continued detention was unlawful.
That history makes Monday’s arrests particularly significant, as the government faces renewed pressure over how it handles dissent surrounding the country’s oil strategy.
EACOP races towards first oil
The arrests occurred as Uganda’s oil project enters what officials describe as its final stretch.
EACOP is a 1,443-kilometre pipeline designed to transport crude oil from Uganda’s oilfields in the Albertine Graben to the Tanzanian port of Tanga for export onto international markets.
The pipeline is a central component of Uganda’s planned petroleum production system and is being developed alongside the Tilenga and Kingfisher projects.
Government projections have consistently placed first oil in 2026. During the 2025/26 budget presentation, government reported that EACOP construction was 58 percent complete, while engineering works had reached 98 percent.
The reported jump to 91 percent completion therefore represents substantial progress in the intervening period.
Once the pipeline and upstream facilities are ready, Uganda expects to begin producing crude oil commercially and transporting it through Tanzania to the international market.
The economic stakes
The oil project has been promoted by government as a major pillar of Uganda’s economic transformation agenda.
Finance Ministry projections have indicated that once production begins, the oil and gas sector could generate between US$1 billion and US$2.5 billion annually in government revenues.
The scale of those projected revenues explains why the management of oil wealth has become an increasingly important political question.
The debate is no longer simply about whether Uganda should produce oil.
It is increasingly about what Uganda does with the money once the oil starts flowing.
This is where Rooted in Resistance’s demand for a new economic model strikes at one of the most consequential questions facing the country.
Uganda has significant development needs, including infrastructure, healthcare, education, employment creation and industrialisation. The manner in which petroleum revenues are invested could therefore have long-term consequences for generations.
Activists have argued that Uganda should avoid the problems experienced by some resource-rich countries where large petroleum revenues have failed to translate into broad-based prosperity.
The government, meanwhile, maintains that the petroleum sector will create jobs, stimulate local businesses and generate resources for national development.
Oil boom meets youth resistance
The clash between the students and police therefore reflects a much bigger disagreement over Uganda’s economic future.
On one side is a government accelerating a multibillion-dollar petroleum project towards first oil and portraying the sector as a major opportunity for economic transformation.
On the other are young activists demanding that Uganda rethink how its natural resources are developed and how the resulting wealth is managed.
The controversy has also extended to environmental concerns, particularly the potential impact of EACOP and associated oil developments on ecosystems and communities.
Rooted in Resistance has previously called for an end to EACOP and urged investment in renewable energy instead.
Yet with construction now reportedly at 91 percent, stopping the pipeline would require a dramatic reversal of a project that has taken years of investment and planning.
The more immediate question may therefore be what safeguards Uganda puts in place as it moves from oil development to oil production.
For the four students now at Central Police Station, that debate has already become a matter of confrontation with the state.
For government, the arrests come at a moment when the oil project is closer than ever to delivering the first barrel.
And for Uganda’s wider public, the central question is increasingly unavoidable: when the country’s oil wealth finally begins to flow, who will benefit, how will it be managed, and will it fundamentally change the lives of ordinary Ugandans?
