Uganda: Idi Amin 2.0 Loading

Three weeks after Uganda’s highly compromised election allowed Yoweri Museveni to retain power, the leader of the opposition National Unity Platform, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (widely known as Bobi Wine), is on the run while his wife has endured humiliating intimidation by security forces.

Barbie Kyagulanyi has told how she had her clothes torn from her body and was assaulted and subjected to abusive interrogation in her home as dozens of security thugs surrounded her and demanded she reveal the whereabouts of her husband.

Wine said in an interview from hiding in Uganda, ‘The Chief of the Defence Force, who is the son of the man I ran against, is saying he is going to kill me. He has said it before, and he has killed.’

Wine said of the security force invasion of his house during which his wife was assaulted, ‘they stole all our money, they took our bank cards, all our academic documents, all our land title deeds.’

Wine’s fears are real. Museveni’s son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is taking over the running of Uganda from his ageing father. His behaviour is frighteningly reminiscent of that of a previous Ugandan tyrant, Idi Amin, with a modern twist – he openly broadcasts his intention to kill and maim opponents on social media.

Before the election, Muhoozi blasted on X his threats to behead Wine and hang Dr Kizza Besigye, who is on trial for treason before a farcical ‘military tribunal’. Muhoozi, backed by his Patriotic League of Uganda, is manoeuvring to take power. The 51-year-old army chief has boasted on X that he would castrate Wine and kill more of his father’s opponents. Claiming that 22 NUP supporters had already been killed, he added, ‘I’m praying the 23rd is Kabobi,’ in reference to Wine. He later enthusiastically reported that 30 members of the opposition had been killed since the January 15 election.

His Excellency President for Life Dr Idi Amin Dada represents an unfortunate image of a post-colonial African leader, a caricature understandably hated by most respectable citizens, a violent, ignorant thug intent on staying in power and reaping its rewards at any price.

But it was not an exaggeration, and it stands as a warning to those uninterested in democracy or commercially willing to put profit before human rights. And the signs are there that it may be reloading.

Amin’s rule was the epitome of excess.

His appetite for women and luxury goods was well known. He self-bestowed titles including ‘Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular’, promoted himself infamously to Field Marshal and awarded himself the Victoria Cross among other decorations. Standing tall, he made a talented rugby forward. As one British officer said with more than a paternalistic whiff, ‘Idi Amin is a splendid type and a good [rugby] player, but virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter’.

Amin came into power on the back of a military coup on January 25, 1971, while President Milton Obote was attending a Commonwealth summit in Singapore. At the time, Amin feared arrest over accusations of misappropriating army funds.

The chairman of the Organisation for African Unity in the mid-1970s, Amin left office following a military invasion launched from Tanzania eight years later.

Under Amin, Ugandans suffered from a dearth of human rights and economic progress, common outcomes with African autocracies. More than 100,000 and perhaps as many as half a million are estimated to have been killed by state terror groups such as the State Research Bureau (SRB) and the Public Safety Unit (PSU).

Obote returned to power after Amin’s flight to exile, which took him via Libya and Iraq to Saudi Arabia. Then, Yoweri Museveni headed the National Resistance Movement, which removed Obote’s successor, Tito Okello, from power in 1985. The NRM's goals were to restore security, establish constitutional rule, and eliminate political sectarianism.

When he was sworn in as president 40 years ago, Museveni said, ‘The people of Africa, the people of Uganda, are entitled to a democratic government. It is not a favour from any regime. The sovereign people must be the public, not the government.’

But that was in theory. The practice has been somewhat different.

Museveni has been in power ever since, outmanoeuvring or imprisoning his opponents, including his trusted personal doctor, Kizza Besigye, who had the temerity to stand against the general after multipartyism was reintroduced in 2006. Besigye is currently seriously ill in a military prison where he has been arraigned on ridiculous treason charges.

True to form, the 15 January 2026 election was held under conditions which no self-respecting Western electorate would accept – of continuous intimidation, violence, beatings, teargassing, detentions and disappearances, and, eventually, a complete internet shutdown.

No country with nothing to hide behaves like this.

And yet, some continue to take Museveni and his endless store of homilies at face value. Even the normally sceptical BBC seems impressed by the old man’s charm, willing to take his side of the story seriously while debating the opposition’s claims amid an internet blackout.

Museveni officially ‘won’ a seventh term defeating Wine by 72% of votes to 25%.

In reality, Museveni is now more than an authoritarian democrat. His Uganda is just a more media-friendly version of Amin’s government.

The extraordinary feature of the 2026 Uganda election is just how powerless or apathetic the international community has been in both the process and the outcome. No one seriously believed that the poll would be anything other than a stitch-up, and so it proved. Yet donor money has continued to flow to Uganda for years and in considerable volume, since apparently the incentives to continue to give grants were greater than the cry to stop.

Many like to continue to believe the myth that Museveni has delivered 'peace and stability' for Uganda, while ignoring the conditions on the ground: of dearth and excess in economic opportunities and political treatment, where opposition is brutalized and civil society asphyxiated, while ordinary citizens remain locked in a daily battle for survival.

In the election’s aftermath, the European Parliament writes tut-tut letters while the African Union among other regional bodies send in warmest salaams and congratulations. Yet if they hate the Idi Amin stereotype that much, they should all move to nip it in the bud.

Any business true to even the most basic understanding of good governance and human rights should be signalling to pull out from Uganda right now. If they do not, the shareholders in public companies should be telling them to do so, lest they are culpable now and in the future.

And if they won’t, then profit before ethics should be their bloody moniker, and discount their businesses accordingly.

For all have been clearly warned on X. Amin 2.0 is loading.

© RUSI, 2026.

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