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Mail & Guardian

President Yoweri Museveni

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In solidarity: This group of protesters condemning violence against young people in Kenya, do so at a time when illegal and unconstitutional detentions are common and crackdown legislation is consistently used to block peaceful gatherings in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Photo: Ezekiel Aminga
ALGORITHMS

Elections and power in the digital age

These prosecutions mark a rising pattern: as elections approach across Africa, the distance between digital civic space and state power grows

  • House of Seshat
7 min read
During the coup, Obote dispatched one of his most trusted lieutenants, a young Idi Amin, to ransack Mengo Palace, the royal compound in Kampala. Among the items seized were the Kabaka’s collection of luxury vehicles, including four Rolls-Royces. (Image: Nicholas Bamulanzeki)
1961 PHANTOM

The return of Uganda’s royal Rolls Royce

The Kabaka of Buganda’s fleet of Rolls-Royces was seized in a coup nearly 60 years ago. Now his successor has brought the only known ‘survivor’ home

  • Andrew Arinaitwe
3 min read
CARTOONISTS

Meet Katoto, Museveni’s big fan

The TV cartoon character — think Homer Simpson meets Robin Hood — with added propaganda

  • Eric Mwine-Mugaju
4 min read
Bobi Wine announced last year he would challenge President Yoweri Museveni in the 2021 elections
AGENCY

Uganda police arrest pop-star MP Bobi Wine, teargas supporters

Having already been detained a number of times, the singer who looks set to challenge President Museveni in the 2021 elections has been arrested

  • Agency
2 min read
ganised criminal syndicates plan that the money be paid to someone [else’s] account so that it is difficult to trace it to the ultimate recipients, despite that they are the main beneficiaries of the spoils.” (Reuters)
DR STELLA NYANZI
Video

New walls in cyberspace: Internet shutdowns and authoritarianism in Africa

Cutting off communication has become a favourite ploy of some of the continent’s Big Men. Ironically, this harms their standing in the long term

  • Jonathan Fisher
6 min read
Integrating social media into CBM frameworks offers a promising solution for addressing the limitations of traditional CBM tools and mitigating the rising public discontent. (Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images)
BOBI WINE

Uganda: One year of social media tax

The introduction of a social media tax a year ago in Uganda caused an outcry from government critics and rights groups

  • Deutsche Welle 1
  • Simone Schlindwein
4 min read
Dr Nyanzi remains incarcerated to this day in Luzira Women’s Prison. (AFP)
DIANE ABBOTT

In Uganda, posting a poem about Museveni gets you jailed

The charge is "misusing a computer." Dr. Stella Nyanzi remains incarcerated to this day in Luzira Women’s Prison

  • Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire
  • Isaac Ssemakadde
10 min read
Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga confirmed that officers “engaged him earlier and drove him away from Busabala” but would not say if Bobi Wine was formally under arrest. (Reuters/Newton Nambwaya)
BARBIE ITUNGO KYAGULANYI

Ugandan police detain Bobi Wine: sources

Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was scheduled to perform Monday but the much-anticipated show was cancelled by police

  • Agency
1 min read
Africa has seen a growing number of leaders establish themselves as “presidents for life” over the last few years, including Sudan’s Omar al Bashir (AFP)
BURUNDI

Algeria, Sudan and the danger of presidents-for-life

Unless something changes, Cameroon and Uganda might be next

  • Nic Cheeseman
8 min read
In 2005, Museveni scrapped a two-term presidential limit which has allowed him to keep running for office. (AFP)
BOBI WINE

Uganda presidential age limit challenged in court

A Bill removing the limit was signed into law in December 2017 after a chaotic passage through parliament that saw MPS engaging in fisticuffs

  • Agency
1 min read
Last month, a concert was allowed to go ahead only after Kyagulanyi agreed with the police that it would be a non-political event. (Getty)
AGENCY

Uganda’s popstar MP ‘hiding’ from police after raid: lawyer

Kyagulanyi is among the most prominent critics of Uganda’s longtime President Yoweri Museveni

  • Agency
2 min read
Nyanzi is a formidable activist in Uganda who has been imprisoned for expressing her views before. (Facebook)
KYLIE THOMAS

Stella Nyanzi: The formidable feminist foe Museveni has failed to silence

She has campaigned for the rights of girls, women and LGBTQIA+ people in Uganda and leads Pads4​GirlsUG a campaign to provide free sanitary pads

  • Kylie Thomas
4 min read
‘When I was elected to Parliament just over a year ago, I decided to continue rallying the young people of Uganda to shun corruption, reject bad governance and believe in their capacity to shape their destiny,’ writes Bobi Wine. (AFP)
BOBI WINE

Bobi Wine: ‘The writing is on the wall in Uganda’

Ugandan MP and musician Robert Kyagulani, aka Bobi Wine, writes that a united Uganda is snubbing the regime’s divide-and-rule strategy

  • Staff Reporter
6 min read
Kenya’s Raila Odinga is often described as a populist but his manifestos reveal the policy concerns of a social democrat, although his campaigns have populist elements and have coalesced over popular grievances. (Marco Longari/AFP)
BOBI WINE

Africa is urbanising fast – and its leaders are struggling to adapt

Expanding cities will fundamentally change politics on the continent

  • Nic Cheeseman
9 min read
A young President Yoweri Museveni in 1986.
BOBI WINE

Bobi Wine’s unlikely hero

Wine has been tortured —although President Yoweri Museveni has dismissed these reports as ‘fake news’ —and earned a treason charge for his troubles

  • Simon Allison
4 min read