Uganda president says opposition 'terrorists' in victory speech

Uganda’s incumbent president and National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni delivers a speech during the party’s closing campaign rally ahead of the 2026 Ugandan general elections, in Kampala on January 13, 2026. [AFP]

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, fresh from winning a seventh term at age 81, said Sunday that the opposition were "terrorists" who had tried to use violence to overturn results.

Official results showed Museveni winning a landslide with 72 percent from Thursday's election, but the poll was criticised by African election observers and rights groups due to the heavy repression of the opposition and an internet blackout.

The whereabouts of opposition leader Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, who won 25 percent, were still uncertain after he said on Saturday that he had escaped a police raid on his home and was in hiding.

Police denied the raid and said Wine was still at home, but blocked journalists from approaching the residence.

Wine has not posted on X since Saturday when he denounced the "blatant theft of the presidential election".

'We know what you are doing'

In his victory speech on Sunday, Museveni said Wine's party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), had planned to attack polling stations in areas where they were losing.

"Some of the opposition are wrong and also terrorists," said Museveni, who has ruled the east African country since 1986, when he seized power at the head of an rebel army.

"They are working with some foreigners and some homosexual groups," he said.

He added: "All the traitors -- this is free advice from me -- stop everything, because we know what you are doing and you will not do it."

Although some internet was restored late Saturday, the government said it would maintain a ban on social media platforms until further notice.

The government blocked the internet two days before the vote, saying it was necessary to prevent "misinformation" and "incitement to violence".

Uganda has remained largely peaceful since the results, though there were small-scale protests late Saturday, with AFP journalists saying tear gas was fired in parts of the capital Kampala.

The security presence was significantly reduced on Sunday, with people out on the streets and shops open.

Attacks planned 'everywhere'

Analysts say the election was a formality, given Museveni's total control over the state and security apparatus, though many Ugandans still praise him for bring relative peace and prosperity.

He has taken no chances in trying to prevent the violent unrest that rocked neighbouring Tanzania during polls in October.

The most serious reports of violence on election day came from the Butambala area of central Uganda, where an opposition lawmaker told AFP that security forces had killed at least 10 people at his home.

Museveni echoed the police account, that the deaths resulted from a planned attack on a ballot-tallying centre and police station in the area.

He claimed the NUP had planned similar attacks "everywhere".

Human Rights Watch accused the government of "brutal repression" of the opposition ahead of the vote.

Another key opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, who ran four times against Museveni, was abducted in Kenya in 2024 and brought back to a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is ongoing.

African election observers, including a team from the African Union, said Saturday that "reports of intimidation, arrest and abductions" had "instilled fear and eroded public trust in the electoral process".