UGANDA: Hopes for change disappointed

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country since 1986 and started his sixth term following the January 2021 general election, faces few constraints on his continuing power. Museveni has won successive elections characterised by increasing levels of violence, intimidation of opposition and voting fraud, having rewritten the constitution to erase term limits and remove the age limit that once would have forced him to retire.

In the 2021 election, Museveni however faced a credible threat to his continuing rule, in the form of singer and actor Bobi Wine, who was elected to parliament in 2017 and campaigns against Museveni’s authoritarianism.