Uganda's Museveni tightens grip on power

Yoweri Museveni's lessthan-stellar democratic and human rights record has caused increasing anger abroad. But allies in the West seem loath to upset a regime which has contributed toward stabilization in the region.

Yoweri Museveni, 76, is scheduled to be sworn in as Uganda's head of state for a sixth five-year term on Wednesday.

He is not expected to change the autocratic style he has developed over the last 35 years, nor the system of patronage and corruption which has been crucial to enabling his longevity in power.

By hijacking state institutions to serve his own ends, Museveni managed to have Parliament twice alter the constitution to allow him to run for president, first removing a two-term limit in 2005 and then abolishing the age limit of 75 in 2017.

The president seized power in 1986, after a five-year guerrilla struggle. At the time, he was enthusiastically welcomed by a population weary of bloodshed, successive despots and ineffectual military juntas.

Elected president 10 years later, Museveni gained the West's trust by stabilizing a country prone to coups and conflict since independence in 1962.

He invited the Asian minority — expelled by Idi Amin a decade earlier — back into the country and put in place a mixedeconomy model, which helped promote growth. This opened the door to substantial foreign assistance which has flowed in ever since, and which has helped consolidate growth, in turn stabilizing Museveni's regime.

Museveni will 'remain in

power' with military support

Teddy Atim, who was born in 1986, has only ever known a country ruled by Museveni. She told DW that she voted for him because she hoped to benefit from the government's business startup capital fund, Emyooga.

"I know that in the next five years we are going to benefit from planned government projects," Atim said.

Mwambutsya Mwebesa, a historian at Makerere University, is skeptical of the president's promises.

"Uganda is a very poor country. He [Museveni] found it a least developing country and it is still a least developing country now," he told DW.

The government projects were the right card to play though, he added, because "poor people do not always struggle for human rights issues or even political rights issues.

They normally pursue survival rights issues."

Asked if he could discern a possible successor for Museveni, he said the president "will remain in power for as long as the military is behind him."

Opposition leader Bobi Wine calls out persecution of opposition

A politicized security apparatus has been a key factor of Museveni's survival in power for more than three decades. It was effectively deployed in the run-up to the presidential elec

Museveni has relied on the support of the army to stay in power indefinitely