President Yoweri Museveni salutes the army during the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the People's Army in Gulu, northern Uganda on February 6, 2005. PHOTO | AFP
Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni – Africa’s fourth-longest-serving head of state in 2023 – has cemented his place in history. He brought an end to two tyrannies: in 1979 his militia helped to oust Idi Amin’s famously bloody regime; and in the 1980s his army won a guerrilla campaign against the brutal government of Milton Obote. When his men marched into Kampala in 1986, Museveni became the first leader of a popular insurrection to oust a sitting African government.
In recent years, media and public attention has focused on Museveni’s rough handling of political opponents and the deterioration of human rights under his watch. A petition before the International Criminal Court (ICC) accuses him of sponsoring violence and abusing critics. Leading dissidents bear the scars of abuse inflicted by agents of the state.
