KAMPALA, Uganda – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has won six consecutive elections since 1986, but the strong man’s winning streak seems to be wavering in the face of a new type of opponent: a young rapper who became a lawmaker who campaigns with a test vest of bullets.
When Ugandans go to the polls on Thursday, Museveni, 76, will face the most serious threat from Bobi Wine, a 38-year-old musician whose campaign has reached many of the 18 million voters in one of the world’s youngest nations.
The election generated the worst political violence in Uganda in decades, with more than 50 people shot to death by government forces after Wine’s arrest in November. Diplomats and human rights groups have warned of protracted clashes following a campaign that saw the government arrest lawyers, prosecute election monitors and violently muzzle opposition leaders. On Tuesday, the government also blocked all social media channels.
The contest represents a generation gap across Africa, where older entrenched leaders are struggling with increasingly restless young populations, demanding better economic opportunities. Museveni disparagingly calls Wine “my grandson”, while the rapper scoffs at the president as “an aged dictator”, who should leave power to avoid the fate of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Moammar Gadhafi of Libya.
“I am the representative of the future,” said Wine. “The struggle is the generational cause of Africa and we must not back down.”