Traverse river, taking in old Ugandan dictator to question (5-7)
I believe the answer is:
cross-examine
'question' is the definition.
(I know that cross examine is a kind of examine)
'traverse river taking in old ugandan dictator' is the wordplay.
'traverse river' becomes 'crosse' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'taking in' indicates putting letters inside.
'old' becomes 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime).
'ugandan dictator' becomes 'amin' (Idi Amin).
'ex'+'amin'='examin'
'crosse' going around 'examin' is 'CROSS-EXAMINE'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cross-examine that I've seen before include "Question in court" , "Check evidence in court" , "Forensically question" .)