Ben Rhodes

I didn't like what the silly string was trying to tell me.

I didn't like how it made me feel.

For people who are watching, I usually save my nicotine lozenge until after the podcast, so I'm just popping this baby in now.

Easter egg, please.

I hope you didn't listen to that last segment.

Okay, I'm very pleased to welcome back to Pod Save the World, Yusra El-Bagir.

She's the Africa correspondent for Sky News, and she's just back from Kampala, where she was reporting on the Ugandan election in the middle of an internet blackout, which could not have been easy.

Yusra, welcome back to the show.

So we wanted to start by talking about this Ugandan election.

On one side, you had the 81-year-old kind of strongman president, Museveni, who's been in power since 1986.

On the other hand, you had 43-year-old opposition leader, Bobby Wine, who's actually been on this podcast a couple of times, for those who remember, once with his wife, Barbie, actually, who also ran in 2021.

And just to kind of set the scene, Yusra,

Something of a rematch.

Bobby Wine, at some risk to himself, has kind of stayed largely in Uganda in recent years.

The election took place amidst an internet blackout.

You described Kampala as feeling like a war zone.

Just set the scene.

What was the mood in the country leading up to this election?

How did people that you interacted with see the vote before it happened?

Well, you know, the tally that you mentioned, Museveni won, claiming 72% of the vote.