Peter MwaiBBC Verify senior journalist

Uganda’s 81-year-old President, Yoweri Museveni, has been in power for almost 40 years and will be standing for re-election in January, but he has not said whether this would be his last term of office should he win.

An AI-generated video appearing to show Museveni urging people to vote for him next year with a promise that it will be his last election has been viewed close to a million times on TikTok where we believe it was first posted. But it has all been faked.

In the video, Museveni purportedly says he has some unfinished projects: “I will never vie again after 2026. So, I urge all Ugandans to come out in large numbers and vote for me for the very last time.”

Online users including local media outlets in Kenya have fallen for the clip which uses visuals from a news briefing the 81-year-old gave during a trip to Egypt last month.

The lectern Museveni is speaking at has Arabic writing and a reverse image search led me me to a video on YouTube of an address he gave, external , externalin Cairo, external which matches the setting of the fake including the doors and Ugandan flag.

Listening closely to the audio in the two videos and Museveni’s voice in the AI-generated one is hoarse and his facial expressions and gestures seem clumsy.

On the TikTok account we believe the clip was first posted, we’ve also found another video featuring Museveni this time making fun of opposition politician Bobi Wine. In the other clip, he makes exactly the same hand movements towards the microphone which indicates they were both generated using the same AI tool.