National Unity Platform

• Young people aged below 30 make up about 77% of the country’s population of 47 million people.
• Opportunities remain limited, with two-thirds of Ugandans working for themselves or doing family-based agricultural work.
• Bobi Wine’s run at the presidency in the 2021 election highlights the reality that capturing the youth vote in Uganda is complex.
• The outcome of the 2021 elections defied expectations, given Uganda’s large and underemployed youth population and the emergence of Bobi Wine.

the structural capture of youth representation in Ugandan politics
diverse economic incentives for political loyalty in the form of loan schemes, grants and short-term employment
well-spun political narratives that draw on entrenched views of youth as beholden to their elders and the state.

New wine, old bottles

• Commentators worldwide suggested his candidacy represented a real and unprecedented threat to Yoweri Museveni’s longstanding rule.
• This is about the same proportion of votes that has accrued to the main opposition candidates in Uganda since multi-party elections resumed in 2006.
• There were also reports of the ruling party dishing out money to potential voters, with instructions to vote for Museveni.
• Contemporary tactics used by the ruling party to co-opt the youth converge with these historically rooted methods of regime consolidation.

Splitting the youth

• First, the youth are organised into a “special interest group” reinforced through quota systems.
• Political structures, such as youth MPs and representatives, absorb youth representation under regime authority and entrench regional divisions.
• Ahead of the 2021 election, Museveni gave state appointments to popular musicians with wide youth appeal who had been working closely with Bobi Wine’s party.
• Youth are often recruited as election workers, special police constables and crime preventers.

What hope for Bobi Wine?

• In northern Uganda, for example, young people have lived through a recent history of devastating conflict and still struggle with its legacies.
• Against this backdrop, if Bobi Wine contests in 2026, he is likely to struggle again.
• Arthur Owor, the director for research and operations at the Centre for African Research, is a co-author of this article.

Rebecca Tapscott receives funding from the ESRC-funded Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID) and the Gerda Henkel Foundation's Special Programme for Security, Society and the State. Anna Macdonald receives funding from the ESRC-funded Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID).

• Upon close, the combined business will be branded as Powerfleet, with its primary listing on Nasdaq.
• MiX shareholders will exchange 100% of their outstanding MiX ordinary shares (including MiX ordinary shares represented by MiX American Depository Shares (ADSs), each of which represents 25 MiX ordinary shares) for consideration consisting of Powerfleet common shares, payable at closing.
• This exchange ratio assumes all MiX issued ordinary shares (including those represented by MiX ADSs) are exchanged for common shares in Powerfleet.
• Powerfleet and MiX Telematics management will host a joint conference call to discuss the transaction today, October 10, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time (5:30 a.m. Pacific time).