Election violence: US citizens in Uganda cautioned to avoid crowd

The United States has cautioned its citizens in Uganda to exercise enhanced caution, avoid large public gatherings, and limit unnecessary movements over election violence.

According to the statement released by the State Department on Friday, revealed that its citizens should take actions such as monitoring local media updates, avoid crowd, avoid demonstrations and keep a low profile.

It was reported that Uganda held Presidential elections on Thursday, January 15, 2026 while official results are being pended and it was added that security forces were using teargas and firing into the air to disperse gatherings.

The United States also encouraged its citizens to beware of their surroundings carry a charged cell phone and program emergency numbers into their mobile devices and carry proper identification, including a U.S. passport with a current Ugandan visa.

Report has it that at least seven Ugandan opposition supporters killed overnight in disputed circumstances, as President Yoweri Museveni has taken a strong lead in results from Thursday’s presidential election.

The opposition say they were attacked by security forces in the home of an MP in Butambala, about 55km (35 miles) south- west of the capital, Kampala, while police blame the violence on the opposition.
Figures announced by the electoral commission on Friday afternoon put Museveni in front with 75% of the votes, based on returns from 60% of polling stations. He is followed by opposition leader Bobi Wine on 21%.

Bobi’s home in Kampala has been surrounded by security forces “effectively placing him and his wife under house arrest”, Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) said.

The internet shutdown imposed earlier in the week means news of the violence is only emerging on Friday in Uganda.
Opposition MP Muwanga Kivumbi told the AFP news agency that soldiers and police fired tear gas and then live bullets at hundreds of people who were following early results at his home. “Ten were killed inside my house,” he said.

However, local police spokesperson Lydia Tumushabe disputes this, maintaining police fired in self defence after a “a group of NUP goons” had attacked a police station and planned to overrun a tallying centre.

She told Reuters they were carrying machetes, axes and boxes of matches and said at least seven people had been killed.
Meanwhile, some local journalists say security forces have blocked them from accessing the opposition leader’s home in Kampala’s Magere area.

“Security officers have unlawfully jumped over the perimeter fence and are now erecting tents within his compound,” the NUP posted on X late on Thursday.

The Police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke told local broadcaster NBS that as a presidential contestant, Wine was “a person of interest”, adding that the heavy security deployment around his home was for his own security.