Old video of Museveni falsely linked to Kenya's recent anniversary demonstrations

AFP

6 days ago

'President Museveni not happy for Kenyan police using excessive force on protesters (sic),' reads the text overlaid on a TikTok video published on July 11, 2025, and shared more than 8,000 times.
Additional text overlay quoted in English and Swahili reads: 'Do not point your guns at civilians, they are not enemies,' while the accompanying caption on the post reads, 'Museveni criticized Kenyan President William Ruto for police brutality on protesters.'
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Screenshot of the false post, taken on July 21, 2025
The video shows Museveni dressed in a military uniform, giving an address while holding a Y-shaped stick.
'Even if you're guarding, don't point your gun towards the citizens, direct it at your enemies. Yesterday I was seeing those young boys,' Museveni says in the clip as he makes shooting gestures towards the audience. 'That's very bad orientation. It means you don't know who the enemy is.'
'Even if they say 'control the crowd', your gun should be on your back like this,' he adds, pointing at his own back.
Similar claims were published on elsewhere on TikTok, Facebook and X.
Shooting orders
The video was shared on the heels of Kenya's 35th anniversary of the 'Saba Saba' (Swahili for 'Seven Seven') pro-democracy protests of July 7, 1990, which paved the way for Kenya's multi-party democracy (archived here).
This year's Saba Saba commemorations were marked by nationwide protests, characterised by a violent police response, death, looting and destruction (archived here, here and here).
Ruto claimed the protests were an attempt by the opposition to 'overthrow' his government, telling the police, 'Anyone who burns down someone else's business and property, let them be shot in the leg and go to the hospital as they head to court. Yes, let them not kill, but shoot and break the legs' (archived here and here).
The directive came just weeks after Kenya's minister of interior and national administration, Kipchumba Murkomen, ordered police to shoot anybody approaching a police station, following similarly violent prior protests that saw several police stations vandalised (archived here and here).
However, the social media posts with a clip purportedly showing Museveni reacting to the recent events in Kenya are fals
Unrelated old video
At no point in the clip does Museveni mention Ruto, the Kenyan police or the recent protests.
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches for keyframes from the video, and the results established that the clip predates the recent unrest in Kenya.
The clip was originally published by Ugandan media outlet NBS Television on January 5, 2020 (archived here).
'President Museveni says that the Police should have their guns behind their backs when asked to control the crowd,' reads the post.
VIDEO: President Museveni says that the Police should have their guns behind their backs when asked to control the crowd. @KagutaMuseveni: It means you don't know who the enemy is.#NBSUpdates#M7Trekpic.twitter.com/QqoLG8bEDd — NBS Television (@nbstv) January 5, 2020
In both videos, the Ugandan leader is seen in identical attire, holding the same stick, and standing behind two microphones with yellow mic foam covers. An orange tent is also visible in the background.
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Screenshots comparing the false post (left) and the original clip published by NBS Television
At the time, Museveni had embarked on a six-day trek dubbed 'Africa Kwetu' ("Our Africa"), a 195-kilometre walk retracing the route his National Resistance Army (NRA) guerrilla forces took when they seized power in 1986 (archived here).
We found no credible source of evidence showing Museveni commenting on the recent demonstrations in Kenya.
However, he did speak about Kenya's 2024 anti-tax protests, which culminated in a breach of parliament, warning Ugandan youth against staging similar protests in their own country (archived here and here).