KAMPALA, Uganda — President Yoweri Museveni has announced a ban on the caning of lawbreakers and accused opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, of using a fleet of vehicles to artificially inflate crowds at campaign events, comments that come amid intensifying scrutiny of security force conduct ahead of the January 15, 2026 General Election.
In a televised New Year’s address broadcast on December 31, 2025, Museveni — who has led Uganda since 1986 — defended the actions of security agencies while rejecting corporal punishment, even as rights groups and opposition figures have condemned what they describe as excessive force by police and military personnel.
“I reject the practice of caning lawbreakers. Some police forces in the world do it using batons. I reject it and it must stop,” Museveni said. He added that “caning by teachers and parents during his youth was ‘a wrong method’.”
The ban on caning comes as more than five opposition supporters have reportedly been shot dead or killed during rallies by the National Unity Platform (NUP), the political party led by Bobi Wine. Supporters and party officials have accused security forces of arbitrary arrests and intimidation as campaigning enters its final weeks.
Museveni used his address to critique the opposition’s conduct and alleged foreign influence in their activities. “On law and order, you have been seeing the indiscipline and anarchic conduct of some of the opposition, guided by the wrong politics in their heads and the parasitic foreigners that back them,” he said.
Highlighting security operations at a Bobi Wine rally in Mbarara, Museveni claimed that those arrested had confessed to organising crowds using “a fleet of possibly 200 vehicles transporting those nomadic audiences.”
Responding to reports of unrest, he reiterated that political mobilisation should not intimidate ordinary citizens. “The criminal opposition must also stop intimidating Ugandans. You have no right to intimidate a Ugandan,” Museveni said, urging voters to participate in elections without fear.
While rejecting caning, Museveni defended the controlled use of teargas by police, describing it as “legal and non-lethal” and preferable to live ammunition, provided officers issue warnings and allow bystanders to move away before deployment.
“I have, however, heard that the mobile audiences of Mr Kyagulanyi have been looting people in some cases,” he said, referring to accounts he said he heard while in Abim District.
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At the time of publication, neither Bobi Wine nor his National Unity Platform had issued an official response to Museveni’s remarks, which were delivered outside regular working hours.
In closing his address, Museveni declared Uganda secure, hailed his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) as “unstoppable,” and announced that the country’s first oil production is expected to begin next year.
Museveni also urged political actors to abandon what he called “pseudo-politics” driven by personal ambition. Recounting his early political activism in the 1970s, he said that true leadership requires broad vision for socio-economic transformation and unity.
