Crowds gathered on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, to show support for opposition leader Bobi Wine as the country prepares for its presidential election.
Wine, a former pop star turned politician, is challenging long-serving President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986 and is seeking a seventh term in office after constitutional term and age limits were removed.
Demonstrators at opposition rallies say they are demanding political change and greater representation for younger generations. Ruth Excellent Mirembe, one of the protesters, said she has known no other president in her lifetime.
“I was born after he had already been in power for 15 years, and more than 26 years later he is still president and still wants another term,” she said. “He has represented his generation, but young people like Gen Z and millennials have no real representation.”
Critics accuse Museveni’s government of tightening its grip on power by sidelining rivals and suppressing dissent. Another protester, Conrad Olwenyi, said decades of rule had failed to improve basic services.
“We are now the grandsons of Museveni,” Olwenyi said. “Forty years in power, and when you go to hospitals there is no medicine, schools are struggling, and taxes keep rising. People can barely survive.”
Human rights groups have raised alarm over the treatment of opposition supporters in the run-up to the vote. Amnesty International has described the actions of Ugandan police and military — including the use of tear gas, beatings, and mass arrests — as a “brutal campaign of repression.”
Bobi Wine has repeatedly condemned the use of force at opposition events, saying supporters have been arbitrarily detained.
“Dozens of our comrades are missing. They were taken from their homes, and we don’t know where they are,” Wine said at a rally. “But they cannot abduct all of us. The prisons are already full, and millions of Ugandans are still demanding change.”
Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party has accused authorities of carrying out widespread arrests at its rallies, claiming dozens of supporters have been imprisoned as the election approaches.