Climate Rights International says the activists have spent more than 17 months facing prosecution without a single witness testifying in the case.
By Bunmi Yekini
Ugandan authorities should drop criminal trespass charges against 11 environmental defenders who were arrested while trying to deliver a letter to a bank over its financing of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), Climate Rights International said on Monday.
The activists, known as the KCB11, were arrested on April 23, 2025, after a Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) official led them into the basement of KCB Uganda’s headquarters in Kampala under the pretext of arranging a meeting, the rights group said.
Police and security personnel were waiting for them there, according to Climate Rights International. The activists had gone to the bank to peacefully deliver a letter urging it to end financial support for EACOP.
The 11 were charged with criminal trespass two days later and remanded to Luzira prison. They were granted bail after 85 days in detention and released on July 18, 2025.
The case has since been repeatedly adjourned, with no prosecution witness yet testifying, Climate Rights International said.
At a hearing on Sept. 8, the court adjourned proceedings until Sept. 29 and gave prosecutors what it described as a final opportunity to present their witnesses. The court indicated it could dismiss the case if the prosecution again failed to proceed.
“The government has compounded this by holding a ridiculous prosecution over their heads for the past 17 months,” Brad Adams, executive director of Climate Rights International, said in a statement. “The charges should be dropped immediately.”
KCB Group was previously identified as one of five financial institutions providing an initial tranche of financing for EACOP, according to the rights group.
Climate Rights International said it wrote to KCB Group on Sept. 14 seeking information about the role of KCB personnel in the arrests and whether the bank had called on Ugandan authorities to withdraw the charges. It said it had received no response at the time of publication.
EACOP is a 1,443-km heated pipeline designed to transport crude oil from Uganda’s Tilenga and Kingfisher oilfields to the port of Tanga on Tanzania’s coast.
More than 100,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania will permanently lose land for the pipeline and the Tilenga development, Climate Rights International said. It cited reports from affected families of inadequate compensation, food insecurity, lost income and difficulties paying school fees.
The wider project is estimated to generate 379 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions over 25 years, according to the group.
EACOP Ltd.’s deputy managing director said in August 2026 that construction of the pipeline was 91% complete.
Climate Rights International said the oil developments supplying the pipeline had also been associated with allegations of compensation delays, inadequate payments, loss of productive land, forced evictions, violence, intimidation, destruction of fishing boats, sexual and gender-based violence and labour abuses.
The group said the KCB11 case was part of a wider pattern of prosecutions involving opponents of EACOP and other oil projects.
It cited a May 2026 review by the American Bar Association of more than 25 criminal cases, which it said found patterns including mass arrests, vague charges against peaceful activities, prolonged pretrial detention and repeated adjournments before cases were dismissed for lack of prosecution.
Climate Rights International also raised concerns about judicial independence after Uganda’s Chief Justice Flavian Zeija reportedly said in August that it would be equivalent to treason for a judicial officer to issue an injunction stopping an oil project.
The rights group said such remarks could raise concerns about pressure on judges handling disputes involving oil projects.
Uganda’s Constitution protects freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and guarantees a fair, speedy and public hearing within a reasonable time before an independent and impartial court, Climate Rights International said.
The group called on prosecutors to withdraw the charges against the KCB11 and urged courts to review other pending protest-related cases.
It also called on KCB Bank Uganda to clarify its role in the arrests and urge that the charges be dropped, while urging companies involved in the oil projects to oppose reprisals against peaceful critics.