IN SHORT: A video of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni apparently pledging support for opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi's future presidential bid is drawing mixed reactions online. However, the video has been manipulated.
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has promised to support presidential aspirations of opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, in the country's next election. That's according to a video circulating online.
In the video, Museveni can be heard saying: "I urge Robert Kyagulanyi, or whatever you call him, is it Bobi Wine? I urge that young man to relax. I want to promise Bobi Wine that in the next general election, I will personally campaign for him. He is a good guy and he can make a very good president of Uganda."
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He appears to be speaking from a presidential lectern bearing an emblem that features the colours of the Egyptian flag. To his left is a Ugandan flag.
Kyagulanyi - who leads the National Unity Platform party - is a vocal critic of Museveni and his administration. Museveni is the leader of the ruling National Resistance Movement party.
Since 2017, Kyagulanyi has been arrested on multiple occasions and has alleged that he was subjected to torture, claims his supporters and human rights groups have described as evidence of political persecution.
Museveni seized power as a rebel leader in 1986 and has since become one of Africa's longest-serving leaders. Over the years, he has faced frequent accusations of authoritarianism, including suppressing the opposition and manipulating electoral processes through state institutions.
Uganda is set to go to the polls in 2026 when Museveni will be seeking re-election. Members of parliament have amended the constitution twice to enable the incumbent president to run for re-election indefinitely.
The video has been reposted widely and has garnered over 150,000 views.
But is it to be trusted? We checked.
AI-generated audio
Both local and international media closely monitor Museveni's political remarks and report extensively on the country's political developments. If he had actually made this statement, it would have been widely reported and debated. However, Africa Check found no such reports from any credible news outlets in the country.
The presidential lectern in the video bore an emblem featuring the colours of the Egyptian flag, suggesting that the footage might have been taken during a visit to Egypt.
We searched for the phrase "Museveni in Egypt" and found that he made a three-day state visit to Egypt in August 2025, where he was hosted by president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
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We also located the original video used in the claim. It has the text "Michael's Desk" and was posted on a YouTube channel of the same name on 14 August.
To verify whether Museveni actually made the comments, we identified the section in the suspicious video where he adjusted his microphone and compared his remarks at that point with those in the corresponding section of the original video.
In the suspicious video, as he adjusts the microphone, he can be heard saying: "I urge Robert Kyagulanyi, or whatever you call him, is it Bobi Wine? I urge that young man to relax." But in the original video, he says: "On behalf of our delegation, we thank you for inviting us to have this dialogue."
The video in question combined an original clip with audio generated using artificial intelligence tools. Museveni did not pledge to support Kyagulanyi's future presidential bid.
The video makes false claims and should be disregarded.
