Yoweri Museveni: Africa’s fourth-longest serving president clings on to power

When Yoweri Museveni seized power in Uganda in 1986, few expected him to become the fourth longest-serving president in Africa after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema (44 years in power since 1979), Cameroon’s Paul Biya (41 years) and Congo’s Denis Sassou Nguesso (39 years).

Now in the class of veterans who have held onto power by manipulating their local politics, Museveni is approaching 80 years, and in Uganda, all those under 40 have known no other leader.

It has been a long journey and apparently, no alternative power structure has ever emerged in Uganda, leading to accusations that Museveni is building a dynasty and that he controls the politicos in a game of Russian roulette.

Museveni was defence minister in the interim period between the ouster of Idi Amin in April 1979 by Ugandan exiles and Tanzanian troops and the December 1980 elections that returned Milton Obote to power. But he claimed the polls were rigged in favour of Obote, and he began a guerilla campaign in 1981. He overran Kampala after an offensive that began on January 17 and was sworn in as President on January 29, 1986.

Democratic ideals

Ever since, he had held onto power until last week, when he temporarily handed over to the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja, when he was down with Covid-19. “As everybody knows, I have been very cautious with corona.

However, recently, I had to give up masks because they have been causing me allergic reactions in the eyes and also the throat,” Museveni wrote. “I have, therefore, got the second forced leave in the last 53 years, ever since 1971, when we started fighting Idi Amin.”

Read: Uganda’s Museveni joins list of Africa’s longest serving leaders

At 78, Museveni no longer has the energy of other regional leaders. More so, Covid-19 paranoia has thwarted his determination to serve as the regional king-maker, although he supported William Ruto’s campaigns for the Kenyan presidency. At home, his democratic ideals have always been questioned. While he swore to protect democracy and respect for human rights, Museveni has been intolerant of any criticism. He started by banning, in 1986, the political parties that had for years been part of Uganda’s political landscape, including the Uganda People’s Congress, formerly led by Obote, and the Democratic Party of Paul Ssemogerere.

“The presence of an opposition would only serve to divide the people. I don’t believe that creating divisions among the people has got anything to do with democracy; in a multi-ethnic state which embraces a large number of religious denominations, parties always tend to form around ethnicity and religion,” Museveni said in one of his early interviews. Initially, he experimented with “no-party democracy”: while he had not banned the political parties, they were not allowed to field candidates.

Museveni was at first thought to be Marxist, having trained at the Dar es Salaam University – a Marxist training ground which first Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere used to back and legitimise his Ujamaa experiment.

Between 1962 and 1986, in a span of 24 years, Uganda had been led by eight leaders. As the ninth leader, Museveni has clocked more years than all the others combined.

“Nobody should think that what is happening today is a mere change of guard. It is a fundamental change in the politics of our country. The people should be able to hire and fire their government,” said Museveni upon taking power, promising that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government would only hold elections for an interim period.

But 37 years later, he is still in power – with no heir-apparent.

While he has been credited for bringing stability to a country that went through the dictatorships of Idi Amin and Milton Obote and eight military coups, Museveni’s leadership has also not allowed the progression of democracy. During campaigns, two formidable challengers, Kiza Besigye and Bobi Wine of the National Unity Platform, became victims of police brutality – an indicator of the narrow space that opposition in Uganda can occupy. In the last general election in 2021, Bobi Wine (whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi) polled 34.8 per cent of the vote, with Museveni getting 58.6 per cent.

Read: Cameroon's Paul Biya marks 38 years in power, but his political problems just won't go away

Scholars on Museveni’s Uganda have described it as an “arbitrary state”, where spaces of freedom are created and then become the operating ground for the police to hunt those seeking to destabilise the status quo.

“‘Arbitrary’ refers to a ruler’s unchecked and unaccountable power, exercised in such a way that those affected cannot predict or understand how power is wielded and have no means of questioning or challenging it,” writes Rebecca Tapscott in her book, Arbitrary Power: Social Control and Modern Authoritarianism in Museveni’s Uganda.

Abolishing the term limits

Once hailed as a reformer, Museveni has entrenched his rule by abolishing the term limits initially set in the constitution to allow him to run for the presidency as long as possible. Uganda’s political campaigns are replete with open violence and intimidation, demonstrating a regime’s cunning and insecurity.

Always frightened by the loss of power, Museveni in 2003 admitted in a letter published by The Monitor that he and his family always went abroad for treatment as part of “our survival strategy in still hostile circumstances…the issue is about security, given some of the hostile doctors we have in the medical system here. In spite of being in Kampala for 17 years now, I have never rushed into a clinic and had my veins pierced to draw my blood for examinations. Even abroad, we take precautions.”

Read: Democracy on trial: Uganda in a fine mess

With such paranoia, Museveni has hardly allowed alternative leadership to emerge within the NRM. The only vocal person has been his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, born in Tanzania when Museveni was penniless and relied on President Nyerere’s handouts. Museveni described Muhoozi as a son who was “born in the resistance and grew up in it”. Whether he would like Muhoozi to inherit his position is not known.

The outspoken military general loves to showcase himself as independent of his father. As Museveni’s Senior Advisor for Special Operations, he has become the country’s military envoy in the region. Last week, he was in Somali at a meeting with President Hassan Mohamud. Incidentally, Museveni’s wife, Janet, is also a long-serving cabinet minister.

During his leadership, Museveni and his brother, Salim Saleh, have been accused of involvement in the Congo crisis. Uganda was indicted, too, of facilitating the smuggling of coltan, diamonds and gold from eastern Congo, where 8,000 Uganda soldiers were stationed to ostensibly flush out Uganda rebels hiding there. An April 2001 UN Report alleged that Museveni’s family had shares in mining companies in the region and were involved in the illicit trade. As a result of that accusation, Museveni withdrew his support for Congo’s peace pact.

Museveni’s other outside challenges have withered with time. The Lord’s Resistance Army of Joseph Kony, operating from the north, has gone quiet, while Prophetess Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement died with her.

In Uganda’s power matrix, neither vice-president Jesicca Alupo nor Prime Minister Nabbanja seem to hold sway. Power seems to rotate around Museveni’s household and within the NRM, where Muhoozi and Saleh have closest proximity as the president’s advisers.