Background:

Fact-check: In the weeks following Uganda’s January 2026 presidential election, social media platforms have seen a surge of posts making sensational claims about both the election outcome and international reactions to the Museveni government. 

Several of these posts invoke the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a mechanism of accountability, at times mixing real historical facts with fabricated claims to lend credibility to false narratives.

A TikTok video posted by the account @prince.sharuma.wa.bobi on January 27, 2026, displays what appears to be a news graphic with the headline: “BREAKING NEWS: The International Criminal Court (ICC), The Hague, issues an arrest warrant against Ugandan war criminal Yoweri Museveni and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba for crimes against humanity.” 

The graphic is branded with a logo that reads “Kenya News”.

Because the claim involves a specific, consequential legal action by an international court, and because the post provides no link to any official ICC source, we investigated whether the ICC has issued any such arrest warrant, or this is just fake news.

Claim:

A TikTok video posted by @prince.sharuma.wa.bobi on January 27, 2026, displays a graphic with the following headline:

“BREAKING NEWS: The International Criminal Court ICC, Hague issues an Arrest Warrant against Uganda war criminal Yoweri Museveni and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba for crimes against humanity.”

The graphic is styled to resemble a breaking news broadcast and is branded “Kenya News.” The post had accumulated over 13,200 likes, 529 comments, and 9,103 shares at the time of our verification.

Findings:

Our investigation shows that this claim is FALSE. The ICC has not issued any arrest warrant against President Yoweri Museveni or his son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Debunk Info Verifier Returns No Evidence of Any ICC Arrest Warrant

We used the Debunk Info Verifier tool to conduct targeted searches using the keywords “ICC issues arrest warrant against Museveni and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba for crimes against humanity”.

The tool returned ten results. Among the most relevant were a September 2025 fact-check by PesaCheck, a July 2023 report by The Guardian, and a report by the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). None of these sources confirms that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against Museveni or Muhoozi. Taken together, they allow us to clearly separate what is verified from what is false in the viral TikTok claim. 

PesaCheck Already Debunked This Identical Claim in September 2025

The Debunk Info Verifier surfaced a September 2025 fact-check by PesaCheck, which investigated a near-identical claim made in a YouTube video narrated in Luganda. The video alleged that the ICC had issued a warrant for the immediate arrest of Museveni and Muhoozi.

PesaCheck contacted the ICC directly. Spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah confirmed in writing that no such arrest warrants had been issued, stating: “No, there have been no arrest warrants issued. Any public decision on such matters is communicated through our official channels, the ICC website and social media platforms.”

And upon reading the statement from Fadi El Abdallah, we did a review of the ICC website and confirmed no record of arrest warrants for Museveni or Kainerugaba.

PesaCheck also noted that the YouTube video cited a New York Times article from July 2023, but that article reported only that allegations had been filed before the court, not that any warrant had been issued.

The TikTok video now circulating in January 2026 repeats this same false claim, repackaged with fabricated “Kenya News” branding more than a year after PesaCheck had already established it to be false.

What Is True: Testimony Was Filed Before the ICC, But No Warrant Was Ever Issued

The Debunk Info Verifier also surfaced a July 2023 Guardian report and an ICTJ report, both of which describe the factual basis that appears to have been distorted and exaggerated in the viral video.

According to The Guardian, in July 2023, US-based lawyer Bruce Afran disclosed documents containing testimony from 215 individuals alleging torture, arbitrary detention, and abuse by Ugandan security forces. The submissions were filed before the ICC in support of a complaint originally made by opposition figure Bobi Wine following Uganda’s troubled 2021 elections. Nine senior Ugandan officials were named, including President Museveni, implicated in his capacity as commander-in-chief, and General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who was accused of overseeing what witnesses described as torture centres.

The ICTJ similarly reported that Museveni and his son were accused of sponsoring violence and abuse in testimony filed before the court, based on the same set of sworn statements.

However, The Guardian’s report explicitly noted that the ICC had not yet decided whether to take on the case, adding that only a fraction of cases submitted to the court move forward. Neither The Guardian nor the ICTJ reported that the ICC issued an arrest warrant. Filing testimony or a petition before the ICC is an entirely different legal step from the court issuing an arrest warrant, and no warrant has followed from these submissions.

It is also worth flagging that some secondary reports, including one circulating on ugdaily.com, incorrectly stated that the ICC had “initiated a comprehensive investigation” into the matter. This claim is not supported by The Guardian’s original reporting or by the ICC’s own official communications and should not be treated as accurate.

 The ICC’s Only Uganda Warrants Target LRA Commanders, Not Government Officials

The ICC’s investigations in Uganda have so far focused exclusively on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), leading to the issuance of arrest warrants in 2005 against senior LRA commanders, including Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen, and Raska Lukwiya. No ICC arrest warrant has ever been issued against any Ugandan government official, including President Museveni or General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

No ICC Arrest Warrant Exists for Museveni or Muhoozi

We searched the official ICC website for any record of arrest warrants or proceedings involving President Museveni or General Muhoozi Kainerugaba. The ICC’s official Uganda page confirms that its investigations in Uganda have focused exclusively on alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of the armed conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Ugandan national authorities in Northern Uganda since July 2002. No warrant for Museveni or Muhoozi appears on the ICC’s official case registry.

The Graphic Uses a Fabricated “Kenya News” Brand

A Google reverse image search of the Museveni photo used in the graphic shows it has been widely shared across social media but was originally uploaded on Facebook. The “Kenya News” branding on the graphic does not correspond to any registered or recognised Kenyan news outlet. The graphic appears to have been created specifically to lend a false air of legitimacy to the claim.

It is also worth noting that the account that shared this video on TikTok and the Facebook page from which the graphic originates, identified in our research as “The News Flash”, has a documented history of publishing false and misleading information, particularly around Ugandan political events.

A second reverse image search revealed that the photo of President Museveni dates back to December 2021, when it was taken during an interview he gave at Kyankwanzi, covered by Reuters on December 5, 2021. The image has no connection to any breaking news event in January 2026, confirming it was repurposed to fabricate the appearance of a current news broadcast.

Methodology:

To verify this claim, we applied a structured fact-checking process combining verification tools, media analysis, and source review.

Tool-Assisted Verification
We used the Debunk Info Verifier to search for prior reporting using the keywords “ICC issues arrest warrant against Museveni and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba for crimes against humanity”. The tool returned several relevant results, including a PesaCheck fact-check and reports by The Guardian and the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), which provided context about allegations submitted to the ICC but no evidence of any arrest warrant.

Official Source Verification
We reviewed the official website of the International Criminal Court (icc-cpi.int) to check whether any arrest warrants or cases had been issued against President Yoweri Museveni or General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Media and Context Review
We examined credible media reports discussing the testimony and allegations filed before the ICC to distinguish between submitted complaints and formal legal actions taken by the court.

Image Verification:
We conducted reverse image searches on the photograph used in the viral graphic to identify its origin and determine whether it was connected to any legitimate news report.

Source Credibility Check
We assessed the credibility of the “Kenya News” branding and the social media accounts circulating the claim to determine whether they correspond to recognised news organisations.

Verdict: FALSE

The claim that the ICC has issued arrest warrants against President Yoweri Museveni and his son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, for crimes against humanity is FALSE.

The ICC has issued no such warrants. Its official Ugandan proceedings are limited to cases involving LRA commanders. While allegations and petitions involving Ugandan government officials have been filed with the court, these do not constitute an arrest warrant. The viral TikTok graphic uses fabricated branding to make the false claim appear credible, and the same claim was already debunked by PesaCheck in September 2025.

This fact-check was produced by Masai Joel with support from The Debunk Media Initiative and BBC Media Action.