🔴 Claim
While addressing the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on February 18, National Unity Platform president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, said:
This is my second time speaking at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, and I am very grateful to the organizers for making it possible for me to speak to you today. In 2022, I spoke about a country that I call home—Uganda—a nation of 50 million people living under the violent military dictatorship of General Yoweri Museveni, who has for 40 years twisted the law and used the military to stay in power.
He added:
I told you of how I ran for president against him in 2021; how it was the most violent political campaign yet; how he massacred hundreds of our people on the 18th and 19th of November 2020; how he shut down the internet on the eve of the election, imprisoned me inside my home for weeks, and then declared himself the winner.
🔴 Background
In November 2020, Bobi Wine was arrested while campaigning in the eastern district of Luuka. The authorities claimed he had violated Standard Operating Procedures imposed to check the spread of Covid-19. In Kampala, his supporters started protesting, sparking a brutal response from security forces, who killed many protesters.
🔴 What OJ-UGANDA checked
- The number of protesters killed
- Sources with reliable information on the actual number of protesters killed
- The correct figure for Uganda’s population, which Bobi Wine referenced in his address
🔴 What we found
- There is no official record that hundreds of Ugandan protesters were killed in Kampala in November 2020.
- Three human rights organisations—Uganda Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International—documented the killings, and none reported that hundreds of protesters were killed.
- Uganda Human Rights Commission said 46 protesters (pdf) were killed; Human Rights Watch reported a higher toll—54—as did Amnesty International (pdf).
- Bobi Wine’s claim that Uganda has a population of 50 million is contradicted by data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, which puts the population at 45.9m (pdf), as per the 2024 census.
🔴 Verdict
- The claim is false.
🔴 Conclusion
OJ-UGANDA found no credible evidence that hundreds of protesters were killed in Kampala in November 2020. Authoritative figures from the Uganda Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International place the death toll between 46 and 54. Bobi Wine’s population claim was also incorrect. Official data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics puts Uganda’s population at 45.9 million after the 2024 census, not 50 million. The evidence shows the claims significantly overstated both the death toll and the population, supporting the verdict of False.
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