Misleading: Robert Kyagulanyi Has Never Been Declared President of Uganda

The video in the claim has signs of AI manipulation. 

TikToks circulating on the predominantly video-sharing platform here and here claim that Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu is the elected president of Uganda, which is false and misleading.

It has been almost a month since Uganda concluded its presidential and parliamentary elections on Thursday, January 15, 2026. According to the officially released results, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was declared the winner, securing the 7th term in office.

One of the TikToks shared on November 25, 2025, reads, “Like, Kyagulanyi is the true president of Uganda & he will be declared again by Mr Byabakama in 2026.”  

The post gained 71.2K likes, 3818 comments, 5743 saves, and 18.6K shares.

The second TikTok shared on Monday, January 12, 2026, also carries a similar claim, circulated widely, garnering over 10.4K Likes, 557 Comments, 947 Saves, and 2660 Shares. 

Our search using the Info Verifier with the keywords “Robert Kyagulanyi declared president of Uganda” showed other claims shared on X that also suggest Kyagulanyi as the declared president of Uganda. 

All of which show the dissatisfaction expressed by the online community in how the elections were conducted and the final results. It is important to note that these are personal or individual expressions that do not replace the official presidential results announcements.

The Facts

Both TikToks attempted to assert the outcome of Uganda’s presidential election and fuelled falsehoods among netizens.

Although Kyagulanyi contested for the presidency in the 2021 general elections, he was not declared the winner. President Museveni was officially announced as the winner of that election, as reported here and here. Similarly, following the 2026 elections, President Museveni was again declared the winner by the Electoral Commission (EC) here, here, here, here, here, here, and here

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Simon Byabakama, declared, “The commission hereby declares the elected president, candidate Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni.” 

The individual speaking in the TikToks looks like the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Byabakama, who is constitutionally mandated to announce election results. However, looking at both the videos circulating on TikTok, we noticed how oddly fast Byabakama is speaking compared to other videos here, here, here (he is not a fast speaker). 

We also noticed the errors made while editing the videos; for example, in this video by qull.cypher.edits Byabakama did not pronounce well his own name, “Bibyakama”, instead of Byamukama, “chambers of the Electoral Commission” instead of “chairperson of the Electoral Commission”, and “Uganga” instead of “Uganda”. He also reads “Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu, Yoweri NUP, Kaguta Museveni” as one person, yet those are two different people. These are signs of manipulated videos and Ai generation to put across a message.

In the video, Byabakama is seen saying, “signed and sealed this 17th day of January”, but those were not the actual results that were announced that day.  On January 17, 2026, Byabakama announced that Kyagulanyi got 2,741,238 votes and President Museveni got 7,946,772 votes. The votes were not announced in percentages like the TikToker claims, except for invalid votes, which were 2.425%, and the total number of votes cast, which was 52.50%, leading us to the conclusion that it was manipulated to push the creators’ agendas and does not reflect any official declaration of the presidential results.

In the second video, by Journalist605, Byabakama is seen announcing the results without his commission gown as required of him; he also declares Kyagulanyi before the election, which makes one wonder which results they used to clear him as the president.

Byabakama “declaring” Kyagulanyi president without wearing his ceremonial gown, compared to when he officially announced President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as president after the 2026 elections, as seen below.

Therefore, the claims suggesting that Kyagulanyi is the “president” or that he would be declared president outside the official electoral process are not supported by any credible or official sources.

Evidence:

We started by using the Info Verifier tool with the keywords “Robert Kyagulanyi declared president of Uganda”, which showed a mix of results, some indicating Kyagulanyi as the legit president while others announced President Museveni as the winner.

We then conducted a Google reverse image search on the screenshot taken from the first TikTok and established that the content was taken out of context and did not relate to the 2026 election results.

A closer look at the footage shows that the video was edited to push a misleading narrative.

Additionally, we noticed in the second TikTok that the background details indicate that the footage dates back to 2025, while the elections in question were held in 2026.A further Google reverse image search conducted on a screenshot from the video revealed that the clip iused in the claim is old  was from the nomination process held in September 2025, as reported here, here, and here rather than the announcement of final results

 The background shows September 2025, the actual month presidential nominations were held, and the colours of the flag and Lubowa grounds at the bottom, while the background of the day the presidential results were announced shows the words “Office grounds Lubowa” at the top with a red background and NUA between the space of the chairs, which could mean January, the actual month the presidential results were announced. 

We also noticed the sitting distance between Byabakama and his colleagues in both videos. On the day of nominations there was quite a distance between them, while on the day of elections and vote announcing he was very close to them. 

Verdict

Misleading. Kyagulanyi has never been declared president of Uganda in either the 2021 or 2026 general elections. The TikToks misrepresent Uganda’s electoral outcomes by suggesting he is the president, by manipulating an old video and using it out of context.

This fact-check was produced by NAMAJJA ELIZABETH with support from the Debunk Media Initiative and BBC Media Action.