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Yoweri Museveni Fast Facts

By CNN

(CNN) — Here is a look at the life of Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda since 1986.

Personal

Birth date: August 15, 1944

Birth place: Ntungamo, Uganda

Birth name: Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

Father: Amos Kaguta, a cattle keeper

Mother: Esteri Kokundeka

Marriage: Janet (Kataaha) Museveni (August 1973-present)

Children: Muhoozi Kainerugaba and three daughters

Education: Dar Es Salaam University (Tanzania), B.A., Economics, 1970

Religion: Christian

Timeline

1970 – Returns to Uganda after college and works for Prime Minister Milton Obote.

January 25, 1971 – Goes into exile in Tanzania when Obote is overthrown by Idi Amin. While in Tanzania, forms the Front for National Salvation (FRONASA) with the purpose of overthrowing Amin.

April 1979 – FRONASA overthrows Amin and Museveni takes a position on the Military Commission, the newly formed government of Uganda.

1979-1980 – Minister of Defense, Uganda.

1981-1986 – Guerilla leader (National Resistance Army) in Uganda.

January 26, 1986 – Becomes president of Uganda after ousting the military regime of General Tito Okello. Is sworn in January 29.

May 1996 – Is elected president of Uganda with 74.2% of the vote in the first direct presidential election in Uganda since independence from Britain in 1962.

March 24, 1998 – US President Bill Clinton meets with Museveni in Uganda.

March 2001 – Is reelected president of Uganda with 69.3% of the vote.

May 6, 2002 – Meets with US President George W. Bush at the White House to discuss ways to get more Ugandan products into the US market.

July 11, 2003 – Bush meets with Museveni in Entebbe, Uganda, to speak about AIDS.

August 2005 – Uganda’s parliament removes presidential term limits.

February 25, 2006 – Museveni is declared the winner of Uganda’s first multi-party presidential election. It is his third term in office.

August 2006 – The Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army sign a truce aimed at ending 20 years of civil war in the country. The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced two million people.

October 30, 2007 – Museveni meets with Bush at the White House.

November 2010 – Museveni releases a song and accompanying music video, “U Want Another Rap?” as part of his reelection campaign.

November 29, 2010 – Museveni takes a surprise trip to Somalia, making him the first head of state to visit in almost 20 years, according to the African Union Mission for Somalia.

February 20, 2011 – Uganda’s electoral commission declares Museveni the president with 68% of the vote. It is his fourth term in office.

February 24, 2014 – Museveni signs into law a controversial bill that toughens penalties against gay people and makes some homosexual acts crimes punishable by life in prison. During the bill signing, he declares that he will not allow the West to impose its values on Uganda.

July 31, 2015 – Museveni says he will seek his fifth term as president in 2016 elections, 30 years after assuming the office for the first time.

February 20, 2016 – Uganda’s election commission declares Museveni the winner, with nearly twice as many votes for president as his closest competitor, opposition leader Kizza Besigye. Besigye was put under “preventative arrest” on February 19 at his home in Kampala, along with six officials from his party. Besigye’s party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) rejects the results and demands an independent audit of the elections.

May 12, 2016 – Museveni is sworn in for his fifth term as president.

July 11, 2016 – Facebook photos of Museveni sitting in a lawn chair by the roadside making a phone call in Kyeirumba Village, Uganda, go viral, inspiring an online meme.

July 27, 2018 – A Ugandan constitutional court ruling upholds a December 2017 constitutional amendment to remove the presidential age limit, likely allowing Museveni to rule for life. The article limited anyone from serving as president past the age of 75.

July 24, 2019 – Bobi Wine, a 37-year-old Ugandan pop star, announces he is running against Museveni, who has been in power for 33 years.

August 26, 2019 – A Harvard student sues Museveni for blocking him on Twitter arguing that being blocked has prevented him from giving feedback to the official’s account about government policies on Twitter.

April 9, 2020 – Museveni releases a home workout video in order to encourage Ugandans to stay home during the country’s Covid-19 lockdown.

May 20, 2020 – The High Court in Kampala rules that Museveni and other officials have a right to block people on their private Twitter handles.

January 16, 2021 – Uganda’s election commission declares Museveni the winner of the presidential election. It is his sixth term in office.

May 12, 2021 – Museveni is sworn in for his sixth term as president.

May 29, 2023 – Signs into law one of the world’s strictest anti-gay bills amid Uganda’s intensifying crackdown on LGBTQ people. Museveni had sent the bill back to parliament for revisions in April.

June 8, 2023 – Museveni says on Twitter that he is taking “forced leave” after testing positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing “mild symptoms.”

March 22, 2024 – Appoints son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, as head of Uganda’s military.

June 28, 2025 – Museveni announces on X that he intends to seek reelection in Uganda’s 2026 presidential election.

January 15, 2026 – Uganda’s presidential election takes place. Museveni is declared the winner on January 17 by the election commission, despite allegations of rights abuses and electoral fraud.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Another Democratic nail-biter in Wisconsin and other takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries

By CNN
(CNN) — The Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin was neck-and-neck early Wednesday morning, with democratic socialist state lawmaker Francesca Hong and moderate Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley separated by less than a percentage point.The race was seen as a gauge of the party’s ideological direction — testing whether the progressive insurgency that has played out in deep-blue districts this spring and summer would extend into another presidential battleground.Hong, though, faced deep concerns about her electability, and outgoing Gov. Tony Evers sought to rally Democrats behind Crowley in the race’s final days.It was the most closely watched race on a primary day that included a Democratic Senate battle in Minnesota, a Republican Senate contest in South Carolina and a long-time incumbent being ousted in Connecticut. Here are takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries:Another underperformance for the leftAugust has been a big test for the left-wing of the Democratic Party – a rare chance for it to demonstrate its ability to win not just in deep-blue urban areas but also swing states.But for the second straight week, its candidate had a dogfight on their hands. Last week, it was Abdul El-Sayed winning the Michigan Democratic Senate primary by a very narrow margin; this week, it’s Hong facing a race that is closer than many expected.So, what might explain this?One possibility is that some voters might be gun-shy about following through and voting for candidates who might struggle to win in the general election. Democratic leaders have worried greatly about nominating both El-Sayed and Hong, and perhaps some voters were convinced those votes would be too risky.Polling primary elections is also more difficult than general elections, because the universe of voters isn’t as predictable. And there is some thought that these surveys might be over-sampling more-educated, urban voters (who favor more left-wing candidates) and under-sampling more rural, blue-collar ones.Plus, there just wasn’t much quality polling in either race.But in the case of the Hong-Crowley race, there could be another explanation: that the opposition to Hong simply consolidated late.A late July poll from Marquette Law School showed Hong at 46%, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes at 21%, and Crowley at 11%.Sometimes when it’s clear a race is coming down to two candidates, voters see that and decide to choose between them. Crowley became the alternative when Barnes dropped out the day after that poll was released.Progressive wins Minnesota Senate primaryNext door in Minnesota, progressives won yet another race that served as a proxy battle between the party’s left and center flanks.Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan defeated moderate Rep. Angie Craig in the Democratic Senate primary. The two were competing for the party’s nomination to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith.Flanagan criticized Craig’s history of financial support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She also lambasted Craig’s vote for the Laken Riley Act, which mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with certain crimes and which the congresswoman now says she regrets supporting. The issue of immigration enforcement became a flashpoint in Minnesota after federal agents shot and killed two US citizens who were protesting mass deportation efforts there in January.Flanagan, however, never ignited the sorts of deep worries about electability that Hong faced in Wisconsin. She was also endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, both of whom sat out the Wisconsin governor’s race.The lieutenant governor will be the heavy favorite in November, when she’ll take on former NFL broadcaster Michele Tafoya, a first-time candidate.Progressives notched another victory in Minnesota in the primary for the 2nd District House seat that Craig is vacating. Matt Little, a former state senator, emerged as the winner in a crowded field in the Twin Cities’ southern suburbs.Darline Graham makes runoff, but has her work cut out for herDarline Graham rode President Donald Trump’s support to a Senate appointment and, now, to first place in South Carolina’s Republican special primary for a full term. But whether it will take her any further in the August 25 runoff is a big open question.Graham took about one-third of the vote on Tuesday, running well ahead of her new runoff opponent, Rep. Ralph Norman. But that’s no guarantee that she’ll be the favorite in the runoff, where the winner needs to get a majority of the vote.In fact, Graham is pretty far from 50%-plus-one, relative to other Trump-endorsed candidates. Before Tuesday, only one Trump-backed statewide candidate took less of the primary vote than she did.That was South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pam Evette in the June gubernatorial primary; she went on to lose by 37 points in the runoff, when her opponents’ supporters coalesced.One of the other candidates in that gubernatorial primary was Norman, who finished in third place with 17% in the initial contest. That wasn’t a great showing, but it meant he had a statewide campaign infrastructure to tap into in the wake of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death last month.Norman has strong conservative bona fides as a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, which could be especially valuable in a one-on-one matchup with Darline Graham. And he served notice Tuesday that he’ll contrast his proven conservative record with her lack of a political track record.“My record is an open book,” he said.If Norman has one problem, it might be his decision in 2024 to back former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley over Trump. Norman has explained it was because of personal ties, but Trump often holds grudges over such things.It’s been a bad week for Trump’s endorseesNot only does Graham have plenty of work to do, but MyPillow founder Mike Lindell’s loss in the Minnesota GOP gubernatorial primary means three Trump-backed candidates have lost since last Tuesday.The first was Michigan congressional candidate Amir Hassan on August 4. He lost to a candidate who had dropped out of the race, Tom Smith, by double-digits.Then it was incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles falling to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher on Thursday.And now it’s Graham going to a runoff and Lindell losing to Minnesota state House Speaker Lisa Demuth.Lindell’s loss means seven Trump-backed candidates for Congress or statewide office have lost this primary season, including five who ran for statewide office.The seven losses are more than Trump-backed candidates had in 2018, 2020 and 2024, according to a CNN review of data from Ballotpedia. And the four gubernatorial candidates who have now lost this year is more than in 2022, as well.Democratic upheaval in ConnecticutIn central Connecticut, the Democratic divide was less about ideology than generational change as voters in the 1st District ousted 78-year-old incumbent Rep. John Larson in favor of 47-year-old former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.Bronin’s win is a reminder of just how restive Democratic voters are. The party’s youth movement is being accelerated in the aftermath of former President Joe Biden’s ill-fated decision to seek reelection, only to drop out of the race as concerns about the then 81-year-old president’s age and mental acuity mounted.Larson, a 14-term incumbent, faced health concerns after abruptly freezing on the House floor during a February 2025 speech. He later said he suffered a complex partial seizure and had been prescribed medication that would “greatly reduce” the chances of another such episode.The longtime congressman made the case that his seniority best positioned him to deliver on the district’s priorities. But Bronin said Democrats need a new direction and a greater sense of urgency in taking on the Trump administration. He won the Connecticut Democratic Party’s endorsement, and was also backed by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a likely 2028 presidential contender.Dems stick with establishment’s pick in key Wisconsin districtRebecca Cooke will get the rematch she sought with Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden in southwestern Wisconsin after she fended off progressive rival Emily Berge, the former Eau Claire city council president, in the 3rd District Democratic primary.It was a key race, with the Driftless Area congressional district looking like one of Democrats’ prime pick-up opportunities after Cooke, a small business owner and waitress who highlights her background as the daughter of dairy farmers, came within 3 percentage points of ousting Van Orden in a political environment more favorable to the GOP in 2024.Establishment Democrats are backing Cooke, who has proven to be a strong fundraiser. But the race wasn’t a traditional progressive-versus-moderate showdown. Cooke has distanced herself from left-leaning policies like defunding the police and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But she was also endorsed by Sanders, and aired a television advertisement focused solely on highlighting the Vermont senator’s support.The biggest question entering Election Day was whether a progressive wave led by Hong would also sweep Berge to a surprise victory. But that surge did not materialize on Tuesday.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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