Bobi Wine Calls Global Solidarity: “Stand By The People of Uganda as We Demand Presidential Victory” скачать в хорошем качестве

Bobi Wine Calls Global Solidarity: “Stand By The People of Uganda as We Demand Presidential Victory”

African Dictators Have Been Losing Power—But Uganda Shows How Militaries Can Still Suffocate Democracy Post-Election Commentary By Samuel Kisitu (Freeman) Media Coordinator, National Unity Platform (NUP) / People Power Movement – Canada Chapter Across Africa, the myth of the “eternal strongman” has been cracking. In recent years, long-serving dictators have been forced from power—some through elections, others through mass popular uprisings. Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir. Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Ethiopia’s authoritarian order loosened. Angola cautiously opened space. Between 2015 and 2019 alone, more than two dozen African countries experienced transfers of power—levels of political turnover not seen since the 1990s. As political scientists Nathaniel Allen and Alexander Noyes observed in The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage in 2019, the decisive factor in whether these transitions lead to democracy or relapse into authoritarianism is not elections alone—but the role of the military. Militaries can tip the scales toward democracy. They can also crush it. Uganda’s 2026 presidential election stands as one of the clearest, most painful examples of how an entrenched military regime can nullify the will of the people—even when the demand for change is overwhelming. Uganda’s Election Was Not a Civic Process—It Was a Military Operation Uganda’s January 15, 2026 election was supposed to be a civilian democratic exercise. Instead, it unfolded under roadblocks, gunmen, abductions, internet shutdowns, and military deployment. What the Museveni regime announced as an “election result” was, in reality, a declaration enforced by force. Opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu—Bobi Wine—has stated plainly that the election was rigged. The evidence is overwhelming. A United Nations Human Rights report released on January 9, 2026 documented extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and near-total impunity for state actors. Video footage circulated globally of Bobi Wine campaigning in a bulletproof vest and helmet—a haunting image that should disqualify any election from being described as free or fair. No democracy requires its leading opposition candidate to dress for war. Within hours of voting, Bobi Wine was arrested. Days later, President Yoweri Museveni declared himself the winner. Key opposition figures were abducted or detained. Former presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye was seized in Nairobi. Bobi Wine’s aides—including Alex Waiswa, Bobi Young, Olivia Lutaaya, Gaddafi Mugumye, and others—were rounded up. Most chillingly, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, publicly boasted on social media about holding Bobi Wine’s bodyguard, Eddie Mutwe, in his “basement”—language widely understood by Ugandans as a reference to torture. This is not electoral competition. It is militarized power preservation. What Uganda Teaches Us About Militaries and Democracy The 2019 Monkey Cage analysis identified five conditions under which militaries are more likely to enable democratic transitions. Uganda fails nearly every one of them. 1. Peaceful, inclusive mass protests exist—but are violently repressed. Ugandans, especially young people, have mobilized across ethnic, religious, and class lines. But unlike Sudan or Algeria, Uganda’s military has chosen repression over restraint—turning guns on civilians rather than refusing unlawful orders. 2. Uganda’s military is not merit-based—it is personalized. The security forces are structured around loyalty to President Museveni and his family, not professional neutrality. Promotions reward political allegiance, not competence. This creates a military with incentives to resist democracy at all costs. 3. The military’s institutional interests are fused with the regime. Unlike Tunisia or Senegal—where militaries remain politically marginal—Uganda’s armed forces are deeply embedded in business, politics, and patronage networks. Democratic change threatens not just power, but profit. 4. There is no good-faith relationship between the military and the opposition. Rather than dialogue, the regime has chosen criminalization, surveillance, and terror. Opposition leaders are not interlocutors—they are targets. 5. International assistance has failed to restrain abuses. For decades, Uganda has received military aid framed as “security cooperation,” while repression intensified. Training and equipment did not professionalize the army—they emboldened it. Uganda is not an exception to African democratic trends. It is a warning of what happens when the military becomes the state. Exile, Silence, and the Cost of Inaction