Uganda's President Museveni confirms bid to extend nearly 40-year rule
The 80-year-old announced late on Saturday that he had expressed his interest 'in running for … the position of presidential flag bearer' for his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Museveni seized power in 1986 after a five-year civil war and has ruled ever since.
The NRM has altered the constitution twice to remove term and age limits, clearing the way for Museveni to extend his tenure.
Rights groups accused him of using security forces and state patronage to suppress dissent and entrench his power – claims he denies.
Museveni said he seeks re-election to transform Uganda into a '$500bn economy in the next five years'. According to government data, the country's current gross domestic product stands at just under $66bn.
Ugandans are due to vote in January to choose a president and members of parliament.
Challenger
Opposition leader Bobi Wine, a pop star-turned-politician whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has confirmed he will run again. Wine rejected the 2021 results, alleging widespread fraud, ballot tampering and intimidation by security forces.
Tensions have risen in recent months after parliament passed a law allowing military courts to try civilians, a practice the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in January.
The government insisted the change is necessary to tackle threats to national security, but rights organisations and opposition figures argued it is a tool to intimidate and silence critics.
Uganda for years has used military courts to prosecute opposition politicians and government critics.
In 2018, Wine was charged in a military court with illegal possession of firearms. The charges were later dropped.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticised Uganda's military courts for failing to meet international standards of judicial independence and fairness.
Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at HRW, said this year: 'The Ugandan authorities have for years misused military courts to crack down on opponents and critics.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Can a national dialogue solve South Africa's problems?
The process aims to shape the country's next chapter of democracy, three decades after apartheid. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa wants people to come together and talk. He has launched a national dialogue process – billed as citizen-led – for South Africans from all walks of life to decide how to deal with challenges from crime and corruption to poverty and inequality. list of 3 items list 1 of 3 list 2 of 3 list 3 of 3 end of list But critics say his party, the African National Congress (ANC), has had 30 years in power to do just that. So, can a conference help to solve longstanding problems in the country? Will the talks address the divisions in the ANC? And what's the next chapter for South African politics? Presenter: Adrian Finighan Guests: Lindiwe Zulu – Member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress Imraan Buccus – Senior research associate at the Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute William Gumede – Associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Governance
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
France says Mali's arrest of embassy worker on coup charges ‘unfounded'
France's Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has said that a French man recently arrested in Mali on 'unfounded' charges of plotting a coup was a French embassy employee. The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it was in talks with Bamako to 'clear up any misunderstanding' and obtain the 'immediate release' of Yann Vezilier, who had been arrested in recent weeks alongside two generals and other military personnel. It added that the arrest of the French national was in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Mali's security minister, General Daoud Aly Mohammedine, had announced Vezilier's arrest on Thursday, alleging that he had been working for the French intelligence services, mobilising 'political leaders, civil society actors, and military personnel' to destabilise the country. Mohammedine said that a full investigation into the alleged plot, which he said had been launched on August 1, was under way and that 'the situation is completely under control'. The arrests followed a crackdown on dissent following a pro-democracy rally in May, the first since the military government came to power after back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021. France's once close relationship with its former colony in West Africa's Sahel region has soured since soldiers seized power nearly four years ago. The military government, led by President Assimi Goita, has turned away from Western partners, notably former colonial power France, expelling its troops and turning to Russia for security assistance. The country has since been gripped by a security crisis since 2012, fuelled notably by violence from groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) group, as well as local criminal gangs. In June, Goita was granted an additional five years in power, despite the military government's earlier promises of a return to civilian rule by March 2024. The move followed the military's dissolution of political parties in May.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
African courts may pave the way for holding social media giants to account
In April 2025, the Human Rights Court in Kenya issued an unprecedented ruling that it has the jurisdiction to hear a case about harmful content on one of Meta's platforms. The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Abraham Meareg, the son of an Ethiopian academic who was murdered after he was doxxed and threatened on Facebook, Fisseha Tekle, an Ethiopian human rights activist, who was also doxxed and threatened on Facebook, and Katiba Institute, a Kenyan non-profit that defends constitutionalism. They maintain that Facebook's algorithm design and its content moderation decisions made in Kenya resulted in harm done to two of the claimants, fuelled the conflict in Ethiopia and led to widespread human rights violations within and outside Kenya. The content in question falls outside the protected categories of speech under Article 33 of the Constitution of Kenya and includes propaganda for war, incitement to violence, hate speech and advocacy of hatred that constitutes ethnic incitement, vilification of others, incitement to cause harm and discrimination. Key to the Kenyan case is the question whether Meta, a US-based corporation, can financially benefit from unconstitutional content and whether there is a positive duty on the corporation to take down unconstitutional content that also violates its Community Standards. In affirming the Kenyan court's jurisdiction in the case, the judge was emphatic that the Constitution of Kenya allows a Kenyan court to adjudicate over Meta's acts or omissions regarding content posted on the Facebook platform that may impact the observance of human rights within and outside Kenya. The Kenyan decision signals a paradigm shift towards platform liability where judges determine liability by solely asking the question: Do platform decisions observe and uphold human rights? The ultimate goal of the Bill of Rights, a common feature in African constitutions, is to uphold and protect the inherent dignity of all people. Kenya's Bill of Rights, for example, has as its sole mission to preserve the dignity of individuals and communities and to promote social justice and the realisation of the potential of all human beings. The supremacy of the Constitution also guarantees that, should there be safe harbour provisions in the laws of that country, they would not be a sufficient liability shield for platforms if their business decisions do not ultimately uphold human rights. That a case on algorithm amplification has passed the jurisdiction hearing stage in Kenya is a testament that human rights law and constitutionality offer an opportunity for those who have suffered harm as a result of social media content to seek redress. Up to this point, the idea that a social media platform can be held accountable for content on its platform has been dissuaded by the blanket immunity offered under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the US, and to a lesser extent, the principle of non-liability in the European Union, with the necessary exceptions detailed in various laws. For example, Section 230 was one of the reasons a district judge in California cited in her ruling to dismiss a case filed by Myanmar refugees in a similar claim that Meta had failed to curb hate speech that fuelled the Rohingya genocide. The aspiration for platform accountability was further dampened by the US Supreme Court decision in Twitter v Taamneh, in which it ruled against plaintiffs who sought to establish that social media platforms carry responsibility for content posted on them. The immunity offered to platforms has come at a high cost, especially for victims of harm in places where platforms do not have physical offices. This is why a decision like the one by the Kenyan courts is a welcome development; it restores hope that victims of platform harm have an alternative route to recourse, one that refocuses human rights into the core of the discussion on platform accountability. The justification for safe harbour provisions like Section 230 has always been to protect 'nascent' technologies from being smothered by the multiplicity of suits. However, by now, the dominant social media platforms are neither nascent nor in need of protection. They have both the monetary and technical wherewithal to prioritise people over profits, but choose not to. As the Kenyan cases cascade through the judicial process, there is cautious optimism that constitutional and human rights law that has taken root in African countries can offer a necessary reprieve for platform arrogance. Mercy Mutemi represents Fisseha Tekle in the case outlined in the article. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
