Uganda: Crowds voice support for the opposition ahead of election

As Uganda gears up for its presidential election, crowds took to the streets in the outskirts of Kampala to voice support for opposition leader and presidential candidate Bobi Wine.

Wine is going up against longtime President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country since 1986 by rewriting the rules multiple times to remain in office.

Protesters are calling for change; among them is Ruth Excellent Mirembe, who said "I was born after he (President Museveni) had been here for 15 years, and almost 26 plus years (later), he's still president, and he still wants presidency! We have not had a president who is going to represent our core values as the youth. He has represented his generation, but we are lacking representation as Gen Z or as millennials, who were born way after he was an adult."

Museveni is seeking a seventh term in these elections. Term and age limits have been done away with and rivals imprisoned or sidelined, much to the dismay of demonstrators.

Speaking at an opposition rally, Conrad Olwenyi said, "we are now the grandsons of Museveni. Forty years in power, without anything. When you go to the hospitals, there's no medication, there's no school, there's no everything. Now, the money that we are earning, the small living, tax is too much, and everything is going beyond our understanding. We can no longer feed our own selves!"

Amnesty International has described the use of tear gas, beatings and other acts of violence by Ugandan police and military against opposition supporters as a’’ brutal campaign of repression” ahead of the election.

Wine has also condemned the use of force against those attending opposition rallies.

"Dozens of our comrades are missing now. They've been picked up from their houses and we don't know where they've been taken. We continue to encourage them (his supporters, ed) to be vigilant and look out for each other. But again, I say this without fear of contradiction, that they cannot abduct all of us. The jails are already full and we are still millions of change-seeking Ugandans out there," he said.

The NUP, Bobi Wine’s political party has complained of arbitrary arrests at its rallies, saying that dozens of its supporters have been imprisoned.