Yoweri Museveni

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa (born 15 September 1944) is a Ugandan politician and former rebel leader who has served as the president of Uganda since 1986. Museveni has long been widely considered to be a dictator, with political parties being effectively banned from 1986 to 2005, and the use of political repression, lawfare and ballot stuffings to maintain power since the 2005 Ugandan multi-party referendum. As of 2026, after ruling Uganda for more than 40 years, he is currently the third longest-serving non-royal leader in the world behind dictators Paul Biya and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Born in Ntungamo, Uganda (then under British control), Museveni studied political science from the University of Dar es Salaam where he initiated the University Students' African Revolutionary Front. In 1972, he joined the failed invasion of Uganda against Idi Amin's dictatorship.The next year, Museveni established the Front for National Salvation and fought alongside Tanzanian forces in the Tanzania–Uganda War, which overthrew Amin. Museveni contested the subsequent 1980 general election on the platform of Uganda Patriotic Movement, though claimed electoral fraud after losing to the unpopular Milton Obote. Museveni unified the opposition under the National Resistance Army and started the Ugandan Bush War. On 30 January 1986, after the decisive Battle of Kampala, Museveni was sworn as president.

As president, Museveni suppressed the Ugandan insurgency and oversaw involvement in the Rwandan Civil War and the First Congo War. He ordered an intervention against the Lord's Resistance Army in an effort to halt their insurgency. His rule has been described by scholars as competitive authoritarianism, or illiberal democracy. The press has been under the authority of government. His presidency has been characterized by relative economic success and, in its later period, efforts to further repress LGBTQ people, alongside numerous constitutional amendments, like the scrapping of presidential term limits in 2005 and age limits in 2017.