Opposition leaders in Uganda denounce a \u201cmilitary state\u201d as President Museveni seeks to extend his 40-year rule amid arrests and campaign violence.<\/p>\n
KAMPALA: Uganda\u2019s opposition has denounced the country as a \u201cmilitary state\u201d ahead of a presidential election widely expected to extend President Yoweri Museveni\u2019s 40-year rule.<\/p>\n
At a prayer meeting on Sunday, Kampala Mayor Erias Lukwago told supporters they were either \u201cpolitical prisoners or potential political prisoners\u201d.<\/p>\n
He described the upcoming vote as a \u201cface off\u201d between ordinary citizens and Museveni\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n
The 81-year-old president maintains near-total control over the state and security apparatus, having come to power as a bush fighter in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
His latest re-election campaign has seen hundreds of opposition supporters arrested and at least one killed.<\/p>\n
Main opposition candidate Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, now rarely appears in public without a flak jacket and has described the campaign as a \u201cwar\u201d.<\/p>\n
Wine has been arrested multiple times and tortured in military custody.<\/p>\n
The only other significant opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, was kidnapped in Kenya in 2024 and secretly taken to a Ugandan military prison.<\/p>\n
He faces ongoing treason charges in a case that has dragged on for months.<\/p>\n
His wife, UNAIDS director Winnie Byanyima, hosted Sunday\u2019s prayer meeting at their Kampala home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really a military state,\u201d she told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s total capture of state institutions by the individual who holds military power, President Museveni.\u201d<\/p>\n
Byanyima said Uganda possesses only a \u201cthin veneer\u201d of democracy.<\/p>\n
Researcher Jude Kagoro, who studies African police, said most Ugandan officers do not see themselves as neutral.<\/p>\n
He stated they view it as their duty to support the incumbent power and often require no explicit order to use brute force.<\/p>\n
The regime uses a system informally known as \u201cghetto structures\u201d to infiltrate opposition groups.<\/p>\n
Under this system, security officials recruit young people in opposition areas to disorganise activities and spy.<\/p>\n
The government was caught by surprise by Bobi Wine\u2019s rise ahead of the 2021 election, responding with extreme violence.<\/p>\n
Analyst Kagoro said authorities have spent the last four years building an infrastructure to withstand opposition pressure.<\/p>\n
Authorities are now telling citizens to vote and return home immediately on election day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe regime wants to make people very scared so they don\u2019t come out to vote,\u201d said David Lewis Rubongoya, secretary-general of Wine\u2019s National Unity Platform.<\/p>\n
A spate of arrests and abductions targeting the opposition has made grassroots organising \u201cway too dangerous,\u201d according to Uganda expert Kristof Titeca.<\/p>\n
He said the high price of political engagement has left only a core group of supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s left is a group of core supporters. Is there a grassroots opposition? No, there isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opposition leaders in Uganda denounce a \u201cmilitary state\u201d as President Museveni seeks to extend his 40-year rule amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2563,12638,12639,12640,12641,153,4672,2564],"class_list":{"0":"post-20253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uganda","8":"tag-bobi-wine","9":"tag-kampala-mayor","10":"tag-military-state-uganda","11":"tag-opposition-crackdown","12":"tag-political-prisoners","13":"tag-uganda","14":"tag-uganda-election","15":"tag-yoweri-museveni"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}