Old video does not show Ugandan leader warning against upcoming protests

The success of youth-led demonstrations in Kenya has sparked calls in Uganda to fight corruption through street protests. Activists have scheduled a march in the Ugandan capital Kampala for July 23, 2024. Soon after this announcement, a clip emerged online claiming to show President Yoweri Museveni warning those planning on participating. But the claim is false: the video is from 2020 and shows Museveni addressing the nation after protests broke out following the arrest of opposition politician Bobi Wine.

The video has been shared more than 3,000 times on TikTok since it was posted on June 30, 2024.

Museveni appears to be holding a press conference in the video.

“President Museveni warns ugandans planning to March2parliament (sic),” reads a caption on the video.

In the clip, Museveni says: “It was definitely a miscalculation for the schemers to imagine that they could use such anti-people techniques in a country led by the original National Resistance Army. Make that miscalculation, but you do so at your own risk. I can assure you of that wherever you are.”

The video was also shared on X here and here.

Uganda, just like Kenya, has a predominantly young population (archived here).

In Kenya, the youth have been protesting against a bill that would have seen a range of tax increases. Following deadly clashes, President William Ruto agreed to withdraw the bill (archived here).

Corruption in Uganda prompted an online campaign dubbed the Uganda Parliament Exhibition launched early this year (archived here).

The campaign has rattled government officials in the East African country where corruption is widespread (archived here).

However, the video circulating on social media does not show Museveni warning Ugandan protesters about scheduled demonstrations.

Old clip

Using the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify, we conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the footage.

This led to a longer version of the clip, uploaded online over three years ago on Museveni’s official Facebook account (archived here).

At more than an hour long, the footage shows Museveni addressing issues related to Covid-19 and security matters on November 29, 2020.

The clip recently circulating on social media was taken from 49’10” to 49’40”.

The segment shows Museveni specifically addressing security concerns in 2020. At the time, his government was cracking down on protests that erupted after then-opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine was arrested (archived here).

Museveni has been in power since 1986 and has had the constitution amended twice to allow him to extend his presidency. In 2021 he ran for the sixth time and was re-elected for another five-year term (archived here).