CIVICUS discusses Uganda’s presidential election with Nalongo Nana Mwafrika, a Ugandan civic activist, human rights defender and former parliamentary candidate working on accountability, democracy and young people’s political participation.
Uganda’s 15 January presidential election saw 81-year-old Yoweri Museveni secure a seventh term thanks to the systematic dismantling of civic and democratic space. The process was marked by a nationwide internet shutdown, the abduction of some opposition leaders and a violent crackdown on protests that left several people dead. While the regime maintains democratic trappings, it has increasingly neutralised dissent. With over 75 per cent of the country’s population under 35, the generational divide between the ruled and the ruler is widening.
