Bloodshed and repression as Museveni wins

Members of Uganda’s police force and the Ugandan army patrol the streets in formation two days after the country’s 2026 presidential election. [AFP]

The death of at least 20 people, police violence through the use tear gas, live bullets and repression of opposition candidates and their supporters rocked Uganda as President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected in polls for his seventh term in office.

When Uganda’s Electoral Commission Chairman, Justice Simon Byabakama, took to the podium to declare Museveni the winner of the presidential poll, it was not a surprise to many because the elections were perceived to be not free, fair and verifiable.

The 81-year-old guerrilla-turned-statesman secured  votes 7,944,772 or 71.61 per cent of total votes cast, the Commission said, against his main challenger, the 43-year-old pop star and political firebrand, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known to the masses as Bobi Wine, who got 2,741,238 votes representing 24.72 of the total ballots cast.

Museveni’s victory extended his rule to four decades. 

In a video message from his hiding place, Bobi Wine said his house was invaded by State security forces on Friday night but  he managed to escape leaving his wife and children who are under house arrest.

“My wife and I have been under house arrest since January 15, 2026. They attacked our house and used a ladder to scale over the wall. Amidst that raid, I was able to use my skills and escape from the house,” said Bobi Wine.

He rejected the presidential results that were being, saying, “what he is declaring isn’t what happened at polling stations. After arresting all our agents, shutting off the internet and ballot stuffing , the regime has again rigged elections.”

He urged the people of Uganda to resist effort of subduing their voice and also urged the media which he claimed had ignored what was happening in the country.

“There is widespread protest because police have shot and killed 10 people in Mutambala, four in Mukoono, four in Byaluse, three in Makindye and three in Kayunga and while the number of the dead in Weru is not clear,” added Bobi Wine.

The 2026 Uganda election is a tale of two Ugandas. One that sees an irreplaceable father figure, and another that sees an ageing despot clinging to power by any means necessary.

Police officers detain a voter on the ground near a polling station in Kampala on January 15, 2026, during Uganda's 2026 general elections. [AFP]

When campaigns officially opened in November 2020 President Museveni, campaigning under the yellow banner of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), traversed the country in a well-funded operation.

His pledges were those of an incumbent promising more infrastructure, roads, electricity, dams and the most important promise of continued security and stability in a region surrounded by turbulent neighbours.

His rhetoric often veered into warnings against “foreign puppets” and “agents of chaos”, a clear reference to his charismatic young opponent. Bobi Wine, representing the National Unity Platform (NUP), offered a radical generational alternative. His campaign was a cry against what he termed “the dictatorship.”

Under 30

He spoke directly to the frustrations of Uganda’s youth, a huge demographic where over 78 per cent of the population is under 30.

The opposition politician promised to tackle the corruption, to create jobs, to demilitarise public life, and to restore what he called “the stolen dignity” of ordinary Ugandans. His rallies were not mere political events; they were vibrant, musical crusades that electrified the urban youth and rural poor alike with dancers, performers and live music.

The State’s response to the NUP challenge was swift and brutal. Almost immediately, security forces, particularly the police and the military, invoked public health regulations on Covid-19 to block, disperse, and violently break up Bobi Wine’s rallies.

These same rules appeared not to apply to NRM gatherings, which often proceeded with large, unimpeded crowds.

The violence reached a horrifying crescendo in mid-November. On November 18, 2020, Bobi Wine was arrested in Luuka district for allegedly violating health guidelines.

His detention sparked immediate, spontaneous protests across Kampala and other towns. What followed was a military crackdown.

Credible international reports, including from Reuters, detailed that at least 54 people were killed by security forces over two days.

Uganda opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine arrives to casts his ballot in Kampala on January 15, 2026. [AFP]

Victims were shot in the chest and head. Uganda’s Daily Monitor carried haunting images and testimonies of families collecting their dead.

For Bobi Wine, the campaign became a daily struggle for survival. His convoy was ambushed and pelted with stones by alleged security operatives. His aides were always beaten and arrested.

In one of the most brazen attacks, documented by The Guardian, security forces in Kayunga on December 30 fired live bullets and tear gas directly at his vehicle, an act he and his supporters called an attempted assassination. “They were not aiming to disperse,” he told the international press, “They were aiming to kill.”

As Bobi Wine dodged bullets, the ghost of Uganda’s opposition past loomed large. Dr Kizza Besigye, the perennial challenger who had faced Museveni four times, was conspicuously absent from the 2021 ballot.

His Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, once the strongest opposition force, has been systematically dismantled.

House arrest

Since the contentious 2016 election, Besigye has spent more time in jail or under house arrest than on the campaign trail, facing charges ranging from treason to “being a common nuisance.”

As documented by Human Rights Watch, the strategy against the FDC has been consistently of repeated raids on party offices, arbitrary arrests of officials and supporters, and the constant financial and psychological drain of fighting the State’s legal machinery.

By 2021, FDC had been systematically fractured by the State.

Police officers detain a voter on the ground near a polling station in Kampala on January 15, 2026, during Uganda's 2026 general elections. [AFP]

The integrity of the elections itself was controversial. The Electoral Commission operated under a cloud of mistrust from the opposition and civil society.

Its most draconian move came just days before the poll when the shutdown of the internet and all social media platforms. The government claimed this was to stop the spread of misinformation, but critics, including the Associated Press, reported it was a clear tactic to stop opposition coordination, suppress evidence of malpractice, and silence independent monitors.

Furthermore, the Commission’s selective enforcement of campaign rules where it crippling the NUP while giving the NRM wide latitude led even the United States Embassy in Kampala to declare, in a pre-election statement, that the playing field was “fundamentally skewed in favour of the incumbent.”

This sentiment was echoed by major Commonwealth and European Union observer missions, which noted severe shortcomings that undermined the process’s credibility.

Election day, January 14, was tense but witout mass violence that had characterised the campaign.

This was perhaps due to the overwhelming military presence that turned streets into armed camps. The vote itself was followed by a five-day internet blackout, sealing the country in an information vacuum until the results were announced.

Bobi Wine, under what he described as “illegal house arrest” with soldiers and armoured vehicles surrounding his home in Magere, immediately rejected the outcome.

He spoke of widespread ballot stuffing, the expulsion of his agents from tally centres, and a complete hijack of the process.

He declared himself the “rightful president” of Uganda and called for peaceful, international-led resistance.

While the government gave no comprehensive figures, reports from Al Jazeera, Reuters, and the Daily Monitor’s own courageous coverage confirm that the death toll from state violence between November and January ran into the hundreds. Many more bear the scars of torture and detention in unknown facilities.

As President Museveni settles into his seventh term, he presides over a nation divided into two, those who want the status quo, fearing instability, and the young,Bobi Wine’s political base who are demanding change and freedoms.