Yoweri Museveni

Biography

Yoweri Museveni was born in 1944 at Ntungamo in the British Protectorate of Uganda. He studied political science at the University of Dar es Salaam, where he founded a radical student front. In 1972 he took part in a failed invasion of Uganda against Idi Amin, then formed the Front for National Salvation, which fought alongside Tanzanian forces in the 1978-1979 war that overthrew Amin.

Museveni contested the 1980 election with the Uganda Patriotic Movement and, alleging fraud after Milton Obote's party won, launched a guerrilla war. His National Resistance Army took Kampala in January 1986, and he was sworn in as president on 29 January.

As president Museveni put down the insurgencies against his government and presided over a period of relative economic success, but kept political parties effectively banned until 2005 and removed presidential term limits in 2005 and age limits in 2017. Uganda was drawn into the Rwandan Civil War, the Congo wars and a long campaign against the Lord's Resistance Army. He won the first direct presidential election in 1996 and every one since, most recently in 2021 and 2026, in contests that critics and observers described as marred by repression and irregularities. His government has also passed laws targeting LGBT people. In 2024 he took over the leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement.