Bobi Wine, Uganda’s most prominent opposition candidate, is in hiding and fearing for his safety after threats from the country’s army chief prompted his international attorney to call for protection Friday. The threats follow Wine’s rejection of official election results showing he lost to President Yoweri Museveni with 24.7% of the vote to Museveni’s 71.6%.
The threats from Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the president’s son and presumptive heir to power, are raising international concerns about political violence and respect for democratic processes following one of Uganda’s most contested elections.
Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who has served as Uganda’s army chief since 2024, has issued a series of inflammatory statements on social media targeting Wine and his opposition party, the National Unity Platform. He called Wine a “baboon” and “terrorist,” and claimed over 2,000 of Wine’s supporters had been detained. On Thursday, Kainerugaba tweeted, “So far we have killed 30 NUP terrorists,” without providing details about the circumstances or locations of those deaths.
Robert Amsterdam, Wine’s international attorney, said in a statement Friday that the threats carry serious weight because Kainerugaba is Uganda’s top military officer. “His statements therefore carry the weight of state power and have operational significance, and they materially elevate the risk of unlawful harm,” Amsterdam said. He urged the international community, including the United Nations, to seek assurances from the Ugandan government that Wine will not be harmed.
Response from the International Community
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for “restraint by all actors and respect for the rule of law and Uganda’s international human rights obligations.” Throughout the campaign, Wine said, authorities followed him and harassed his supporters, often using tear gas. He campaigned in protective gear—a flak jacket and helmet—due to security concerns.
Election Troubled by Irregularities
The presidential election on January 16 was marked by a days-long internet shutdown and the failure of biometric voter identification machines that caused voting delays, particularly in Kampala, the capital. Wine also alleged that ballot boxes were stuffed in areas seen as Museveni strongholds. Museveni, 81, will now serve a seventh term that would bring him closer to five decades in power.
Pressure Extends Beyond Election Day
The government’s pressure on the opposition extended beyond the election and campaign. Police charged Muwanga Kivumbi, a lawmaker and deputy president of Wine’s party, with terrorism on Friday for his alleged role in violence in his constituency that left seven people dead. Kivumbi denies the charges. While police say Wine has not committed a crime and is not wanted, multiple tweets by Kainerugaba suggest the military is looking for him.
Museveni has dominated Uganda’s politics for decades, credited by his supporters with bringing relative peace and stability that makes Uganda home to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing violence in the region. But he has offered no retirement timeline, and no rivals exist in the upper ranks of his National Resistance Movement party.