Yoweri Museveni has been president of Uganda since 1986—40 years at the helm—when he took power at the head of a rebel army. He is 81 years old and was declared the winner of a seventh term on January 15th 2026 with almost 72% of the vote. Half the electorate did not vote. Power has never changed hands at the ballot box in Uganda. He lived in Tanzania, first as a student and later as a rebel leader.
Mr Museveni favours large-scale infrastructure over the small-scale, bottom-up development model promoted by Western aid agencies. "How can a capitalist not know how money is generated?" he asked in 2025, grumbling that donor money has gone to schools and hospitals rather than railways and power plants.
His authority is beginning to slip. At 81 he can no longer maintain his schedule of late-night meetings with his old vigour; relatives must pick up the slack. Fear of an uprising is thought to have prompted his regime to go hard after Kizza Besigye, an opposition leader who was kidnapped in Kenya and rendered to a military jail in Uganda in November 2024. He is said to have a personal bond with William Ruto, Kenya's president. His harsh approach to dissent has served as "an example and encouragement" to his regional peers, according to a member of a Ugandan opposition party. He has dished out money to everyone from motorbike taxi drivers to musicians.
Mr Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, commands the army and is the most obvious successor. He has adopted a persona on social media that borrows from Idi Amin and Donald Trump: mocking his critics and boasting about torturing opposition activists in his basement. He has suggested hanging Besigye, fantasised about beheading Bobi Wine and vowed to turn the army into a "killing machine". Mr Museveni's brother, Salim Saleh, a general, is a ubiquitous if shadowy presence in public life, almost a co-president.
Marxist Law of Distribution of Wealth: Shortages will be divided equally among the peasants.