The Ugandan rebel-turned-president who is seeking a seventh term

Ugandans beneath the age of 40 – and that’s greater than three-quarters of the inhabitants – have solely recognized one president.

Yoweri Museveni seized the highest job in 1986 following an armed rebellion and on the age of 81, he reveals no indicators of budging.

His time on the helm has been accompanied by an extended interval of peace and important improvement, for which many are grateful. However his critics say he has maintained his grip on energy by a combination of sidelining opponents and compromising unbiased establishments.

“We do not imagine in [presidential] time period limits,” he as soon as advised the BBC, safe in his position after successful a fifth election.

A yr later, the age restrict for a presidential candidate was eliminated – paving the best way, many imagine, for Museveni to grow to be president for all times.

Museveni’s journey started in 1944, when he was born right into a household of cattle keepers in Ankole, western Uganda.

He got here of age throughout Uganda’s battle for independence from the UK, which was adopted by a interval of brutality and turbulence beneath Milton Obote and Idi Amin.

For a few years, Museveni didn’t know his beginning date, writing in his memoir: “We had actual life-threatening challenges comparable to extra-judicial killings and looting… we had no time to fret about particulars comparable to dates of beginning.”

In 1967, Museveni left Uganda to attend the College of Dar es Salaam in neighbouring Tanzania. There, he studied economics and political science and solid alliances with politically energetic college students from across the area.

Museveni’s title gained forex within the Seventies, after a coup by the infamous Amin.

Museveni helped kind the Entrance for Nationwide Salvation – one of many insurgent teams that, with Tanzania’s assist, ousted Amin. Amin was notorious for crushing dissent and expelling the nation’s Asian neighborhood. Underneath his eight-year rule an estimated 400,000 individuals had been killed.

“He was a part of the colonial system,” Museveni advised the World Indian Community in a latest interview. “Idi Amin was ignorant… a bit chauvinistic”.

Following Amin’s fall, former President Milton Obote returned to energy by way of a normal election. Nonetheless, Museveni refused to simply accept Obote’s management, claiming the vote had been rigged.

He launched a guerrilla battle in 1981 and 5 years later, his insurgent group, the Nationwide Resistance Motion (NRM), seized energy and Museveni grew to become chief.

Uganda’s economic system started to develop steadily and over 10 years, the nation noticed a mean annual progress of greater than 6%. Major college enrolment doubled and HIV ranges dropped due to an anti-Aids marketing campaign spearheaded by the president.

Museveni grew to become a darling of the West, however his popularity took a success in 1998, when Uganda and Rwanda invaded neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in assist of rebels combating to overthrow the federal government.

Round this time, critics additionally complained that the president was rising much less tolerant of opposing views. It additionally grew to become clear he had no plans to cede energy.

Museveni had mentioned, in a 1986 assortment of writing: “The issue of Africa on the whole, and Uganda specifically, isn’t the individuals however leaders who need to overstay in energy.”

However by 2005 his views had seemingly modified and Uganda’s structure was amended, eradicating the cap on what number of phrases a president might serve.

In 2017, the age restrict for presidential candidates was additionally eradicated – a transfer which led to MPs throwing chairs in a chaotic parliamentary brawl.

Museveni has additionally confronted allegations that he has weakened the independence of key establishments.

Particularly, Uganda’s judiciary has been accused of recruiting so-called “cadre judges” whose loyalty lies with the federal government.

When judges have gone in opposition to the federal government, they’ve typically discovered themselves at loggerheads with the authorities.

For instance, in December 2005, armed safety personnel raided the Excessive Courtroom within the capital, Kampala, re-arresting members of a suspected insurgent group, who had simply been acquitted of treason fees.

The media has additionally had its independence threatened. On the floor, Uganda has a full of life media business, however quite a few retailers have been raided and journalists detained.

Maybe probably the most important consider Museveni’s longevity is the neutering of potential opposition forces.

When it grew to become clear that Museveni didn’t intend to depart energy, a few of his former associates began to interrupt away. As they did, the safety businesses turned their consideration to them.

As an example, Kizza Besigye of the opposition Discussion board for Democratic Change, who was as soon as Museveni’s physician, first ran in opposition to the president in 2001. Since then, he has been arrested and prosecuted quite a few instances. In 2024, he mysteriously disappeared in Nairobi, solely to seem 4 days later in a Ugandan army court docket. He stays in jail on treason fees, which he denies.

Pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine is the most recent Museveni critic to face the wrath of the state.

The 43-year-old opposition chief, whose star energy attracts big crowds of kids, has been arrested, imprisoned and charged with crimes together with treason. These have all later been dropped.

In 2021 the police tear-gassed and even shot at Bobi Wine and his supporters, saying they’d defied coronavirus restrictions on giant gatherings.

Throughout the present marketing campaign interval, safety forces have used “firearms and dwell ammunition to disperse peaceable assemblies” and kidnapped opposition get together members in unmarked vans, a UN report says.

Amid this surroundings, Museveni ominously advised the general public that “one soldier carries 120 bullets”. Nonetheless, he additionally ordered the police to not beat opposition supporters and use tear fuel as a substitute.

Museveni’s supporters level to the relative stability Uganda has loved within the a long time he has been in energy.

Emmanuel Lumala Dombo, a spokesperson for the NRM, factors out that greater than 1.7 million individuals have moved to Uganda after fleeing strife in their very own nations.

“Forty years in the past, we had been among the many greatest exporters of refugees among the many neighbouring nations that encompass us,” Dombo advised the BBC. “Proper now Uganda is the most important host of refugees in Africa.”

This sentiment was echoed by a Museveni supporter who had, surprisingly, turned as much as a Bobi Wine rally.

Ndyasima Patrick advised the BBC he would vote for Museveni as a result of “he has saved us alive for all these years”.

He additionally respects Museveni’s age and feels Bobi Wine would solely be prepared to steer Uganda when he hits his 50s.

Museveni’s authorities has just lately been encouraging overseas funding, placing offers with the likes of China, the UK and the United Arab Emirates. He says he needs Uganda to grow to be a middle-income nation by 2040.

Museveni sees himself not solely as a steady, bold presence, but additionally as a nurturing determine for Uganda’s youth. He fondly calls his younger followers Bazukulu (that means grandchildren within the Luganda language) and so they confer with him by the nicknames M7 or Sevo.

However with a watch on Bobi Wine, who’s roughly half of Museveni’s age, the president has been eager to indicate his vitality.

In 2020, to encourage train throughout lockdown he was filmed doing press-ups, after which repeated the trick a number of instances that yr, together with in entrance of cheering college students.

He has addressed his well being on quite a few events, saying late final yr: “I’ve been right here with you for 40 years now. Have you ever ever heard that I’ve been in hospital? Besides after I had [coronavirus] for 21 days.”

As Museveni ages, critics fear that he’s turning the nation into his household’s fiefdom.

They word that the president’s spouse, Janet, is the schooling minister and his son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba is head of the military. Museveni’s grandson additionally enrolled into the military in July, a transfer seen as doubtlessly perpetuating the household dynasty.

The NRM has mentioned little about the way it will handle Museveni’s succession, however hypothesis that 51-year-old Gen Kainerugaba will step up is rife.

Ought to this come to go, it might jeopardise Museveni’s legacy of stability. Gen Kainerugaba is understood for being unpredictable and provocative, particularly on social media. He has used X to joke about invading Kenya, rile Ethiopia by backing Egypt throughout a dispute between the 2 nations and admit to detaining Bobi Wine’s bodyguard in his basement.

For the time being, nevertheless, with nearly 4 a long time of expertise behind him, Museveni is assured he’ll bag a seventh victory.

“Uganda is safe. Exit and vote,” he advised the general public throughout a New 12 months’s Eve handle. “The Ugandan NRM are unstoppable.”

Extra reporting by Sammy Awami