International Villain of the Year runner-up: Yoweri Museveni

It’s been another stinker of a year for Uganda’s bigot-in-chief, President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni signed the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law in May, introducing the death penalty for certain same-sex acts.

It’s not just gay sex that is now illegal in Uganda. The “recruitment, promotion and funding” of LGBTQI+ ­activities is also punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

In response, the US axed Uganda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade treaty.

Museveni was characteristically unrepentant, tweeting in response: “Some of these actors in the Western world overestimate themselves and underestimate the freedom fighters of Africa.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: People of the Year 2023: The awesome, awful and truly evil

That wasn’t Museveni’s only claim to infamy this year by a long shot, either. Also in May, his political opponent Bobi Wine filed papers with the ­International Criminal Court ­accusing Museveni and his son ­Muhoozi Kainerugaba of sponsoring the torture of opposition figures in Uganda.

The papers contained testimonies from 215 people, alleging they were subjected to torture methods including having their teeth forcibly ­extracted and their toenails pierced with needles. Museveni and his son are a blight on their country. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.