With just one month to go before Uganda’s general election, a crackdown on the opposition is sparking outrage in the country.
CNN’s Larry Madowo went to Uganda to investigate the tensions rising there, and accompanied Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine as he tries to campaign ahead of January’s elections.
Wine is seeking to remove President Museveni from power after 40 years. The musician turned politician is running for president for a second time. Nearly twice his age, President Yoweri Museveni is also running for a seventh term.
But everywhere Wine goes, there are dozens of police officers, soldiers, stopping him from moving about and beating supporters.
“I believe that General Museveni largely views Uganda as his personal property, as his family property, and he views us as slaves,” Wine told Madowo in an interview.
He accuses security forces of using violence to stop him from campaigning. He says more than 450 members of his party and supporters have been imprisoned during the campaign, others tortured or disappeared.
At one stop in Northern Uganda, supporters formed a protective shield around the candidate as military officers whipped them. One of his closest aides was wounded.
“Look at what the police and the military are doing to us for no crime whatsoever,” Wine says. “Some people have been shot dead at my rally and I know the regime has me as the main target.”
CNN filmed hundreds of police, military, and special forces at Bobi Wine’s rallies in the capital, Kampala. They blocked him from using some roads, beat up some supporters, and teargassed bystanders.
When asked why he isn’t able to campaign freely, Wine said: “I believe it is fear. It is fear that General Museveni knows that he has no support. Every time I go out to campaign, I know that somebody is going to be beaten, somebody is going to be killed, run over by the police, shot with live bullets and all that.”
Wine continued that “if 2021 was a free and fair election, I would be President already.”
When asked whether he believes January 2026 will be a free and fair election, Wine replied: “This is not an election to begin with. This is war.”