At 81, President Museveni still jogs through campaign grounds, sometimes paces long rallies without notes and speaks for hours with the ease of a man decades younger.
In a tightly choreographed, televised dialogue lasting more than two hours on Sunday at Nakasero State Lodge, the veteran leader offered his most personal explanation yet for his stamina, longevity and motivation, rooting both in history, identity and what he called an unbroken mission to ‘secure freedom for Africans.’
The event, dubbed ‘Jazz with Jajja’, was hosted by one of his daughters, Natasha Museveni, and brought together selected young adults in an outreach aimed at engaging a generation that has grown increasingly restless over unemployment, inequality, corruption and political exclusion.
Museveni, who seized power in 1986 after leading a five-year rebellion, is Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state and one of the world’s 10 oldest leaders.
Museveni turned 81 in September 2025 and is seeking another term in elections scheduled for January 15, 2026, a victory that would entrench his rule close to half a century.
But Uganda is a strikingly young country. More than 75 percent of its population of about 46 million is under the age of 30, placing the nation at a decisive generational crossroads.
‘Stupid Indians and African chiefs’
Museveni faces seven opposition challengers, including his closest rival in the previous election, Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, whose appeal among younger voters has posed a sustained political challenge.
Yet during Sunday’s exchange, Museveni sought to frame his continued grip on power not as personal ambition, but as historical necessity.
‘What motivates me is because I love myself as a person of the cow clan, as a Munyankole-Muhororo; as a Ugandan, as an African, I love you people. All of you are my children and grandchildren,’ he said.
He traced that motivation back to the 1960s, arguing that global power politics had taught him that weakness invites extinction.
‘We could see from the 1960s that if we didn’t do this or that, we’d be in danger. The world is not kind and if you’re weak, you will disappear. I don’t want my race to disappear or become slaves,’ Museveni said.
In a sweeping historical narrative, he linked Africa’s colonial experience to internal fragmentation and global shifts that ultimately opened space for independence.
‘The people you call Americans are Europeans who went and took the land of Indians because Indians were stupid and not organized,’ he said, before recounting how parts of Africa-South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya’s ‘White Highlands’ in the 1950s-were similarly targeted.
Museveni now blames Africa’s colonization on internal divisions among traditional leaders, contrasting that failure with organised resistance elsewhere.
‘Our stupid chiefs failed to defend us because they were fighting against themselves,’ Museveni said, pointing to the formation of the African National Congress in 1912 and the rise of Pan-Africanism.
He credited global events, including the Russian Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, and the emergence of China’s communist government in 1949, for weakening European imperial powers and accelerating African independence.
‘What they wanted was like what happened in America where the indigenous people disappear or survive as second class. This is what I can’t accept,’ he said, emphasizing that: ‘I want you to be free people. I can’t compromise on that.’
Museveni framed his domestic political struggles through the same lens, citing confrontations with past leaders as part of what he called a fight against ‘our own fools’ who stood in the way of liberation.
‘That’s why we started fighting. Like Idi Amin. you don’t know what you are doing and you want to be our president. You don’t know what you’re doing yet we’re at war. We had to say get out,’ the veteran Ugandan leader explained.
‘Museveni on his luck’
The president’s remarks came amid continued criticism from rights groups and opposition figures who argue that his longevity has been sustained by a zero-tolerance approach to dissent and repeated crackdowns on political rivals, an issue Museveni did not directly address during the dialogue.
When asked about his physical stamina, the president on January 4, 2025 turned inward, crediting tradition, diet and ancestry rather than modern medicine or discipline alone.
‘I think I was lucky because my family and African people are very strong,’ he said, adding: ‘The problem were the kings or rulers who were wasting our time.’
He described a lineage largely untouched by colonial structures, noting that his great-grandfather, who died around 1915, never joined the church or colonial administration and remained a cattle keeper.
‘My grandfathers were rich traditional people. My father, Mzee Kaguta, was the first to go to church in 1947, but even then we remained traditional,’ Museveni said before he linked that upbringing to physical endurance.
‘Traditional people are very strong. Stamina from things like looking after cows,’ he said, arguing that military training later felt ‘much weaker than my lifestyle as a tough cattle keeper.’
He contrasted his habits with urban diets.
‘If I had joined the chapatti-eating, it may have been different,’ Museveni said, drawing laughter.
‘I am an original Munyankole who knows English and has studied the world,’ he added, before pointing to family longevity as proof.
‘My uncles have just died. One died at 104. My father died at 97. He was still looking after cows in his 90s,’ he said, adding that even now he prefers cassava and millet over rice.
When his daughter Natasha interjected: ‘What about us who eat chappatis?’ Museveni smiled.
‘For you, God is there. But remember that millet is there,’ he replied.
About an hour into the exchange, Museveni’s tone had earlier softened as he reflected on youth, discipline and desire.
‘I was young like you. I would also swing girls but remember to fight, study, work and dance once in a while. The problem is that now you’re dancing all the time.’
He urged young Africans to look beyond pleasure and focus on what he described as the continent’s unfinished project in ‘unity and federation.’
For Museveni, longevity, like power itself, is presented not as accident or indulgence, but as destiny shaped by history, culture, lifestyle and an unyielding belief that Africa’s survival still demands his vigilance.